Indian music and its devotional soul
"Nāda Brahma" — sound is God. In India, music was never only entertainment; it was a path to the divine. How did the chant of the Samaveda become the ragas of today, and why are so many great compositions prayers?
The verse
Sound is God
[Traditional account]
Indian tradition holds that the universe arose from sound — nāda — and that Om is its essence. Music (saṅgīta: song, instrument and dance together) was therefore a sacred art. The Samaveda, the Veda of song, is traditionally regarded as its source, and Saraswati, holding the veena, is its goddess.
Raga and tala
[Historical scholarship]
Bharata's Natya Shastra (composed roughly between 200 BCE and 200 CE) describes music, dance and drama in detail; Sharngadeva's Sangita Ratnakara (13th century) became the great reference. A rāga — "that which colours the mind" — is a melodic framework with its own notes, movements, mood and time of day; a tāla is a rhythmic cycle. Out of these, India built two great classical traditions — and a saint who wandered the streets of Hampi gave one of them its foundations…
The journey continues for members
- Carnatic music — the saints' music
- Hindustani music
- Devotion in every home
- Music and healing — claims and evidence
- What we can learn
Sources
- Natya Shastra — Bharata
- Sangita Ratnakara — Sharngadeva
- Kritis of Tyagaraja, Dikshitar, Syama Sastri
- Samaveda