History of Indian Classical music

Bhakti Saints and their contribution to Indian classical music

Music in India from its origin to evolution and growth need to be viewed in religious
perspective. In course of time some of the musical forms which were developed had little to
do with religion or religious rituals- yet a classical singer even an improvised ‘raga alapa’
does it as a ritualistic act in the presence of God.

In south India it is accepted that music has emerged out of religion, centred in and around
temple and with worship.

The idea of ‘bhakti’ implied loving adoration of God, made compositions of devotional songs
as –

Bhajans

Stutis

Kriti

Nama Kirtana

Padas

Slokas

Namavalis

Sankirtans

Padavalis

Padam etc became increasingly popular.

Padams – had religious devotional or philosophical themes.

Bhajans – mean to sing in praise of God. It is rendered solo, or in group, but the latter is
often termed as ‘Kirtan’, – Namavalis are the most common.

Kritis (prose) – are mostly in Telegu, Sanskrit and Tamil.

From the point of view of Indian Classical music the development of devotional music and
its various form like:

The origin of ragas is traced to a divine source. According to Narada, Krishna began to play
murli, captivating the hearts of the Gopi’s by its sweet melody. Gopis then in the company
of Krishna, each sang a song, which led to the birth of sixteen thousand ragas. Ragas are the
representation of ‘ShivaSakti’ and ocean of love (prem rasa) which captivated in the heart of
God Vishnu.

The word ‘ta’ signifies ‘Gauri’, ‘na’ – indicative of ‘Lord Shiva’.

‘Tana’ thus makes one realise ‘Shiva-Sakti’.

One of the peculiar feature found in bhakti songs like –Chandidas, Mira Bai,’Tulsidas’ and
‘Surdas’ was ‘banita’ or ‘chhap’, in which creator of the text and music entered their name
in the text. The use of ‘banita’ are also noticed in ‘dhoa’ ‘kabita’ etc.

Thousands of devotional songs only those have survived through the oral tradition, which
appeal to the listeners due to quality of the text and also were appealing musically. The
oldest composition that has come to us is ‘Charyagiti’ of Buddhist Tantrik or ‘Astapadis’ of
Jayadeva on account of their lyrical beauty.

‘Vaggeyakaras’ composed their songs in wide variety of composition for which the term ‘
Prabandha’ genre is used by some scholar. Thus the ‘padas’ of ‘Namadeva’ were composed
as Prabandha.

‘Padmanava’ the poet, wrote well known work ‘Kanhadade Prabandha’ in which he mention
singing of ‘pada prabandha’.

Some of the saints of Maharastra like’Eknath’ have sung ‘Saptapadis’, ‘Chaupadis’ etc. We
have ‘Chaupadis’ in Hindi & Marathi by ‘Damodara Pandit’. In ‘Gorakh bani’ we have
‘Saptapadis’ & ‘Chaupadis’ which were forms of ‘Prabandha’.

These bhajans, padas, kritis, songs were by oral transmission- preserved through ‘Guru-
Sishya’ parampara. This was the main vehicle of transmission and preservation of these
devotional songs.

Even today we find ‘gharanas’ of traditional ‘bhajans & kirtan’ singers in different parts of
India just we find ‘gharanas’ of classical singers.

Later collection of padas, sakhis etc. were made by the disciples. But this does not seem to
apply to the songs of ‘Jayadeva’, ‘Vidyapati’, ‘Chandidas’, ‘Jnaneshwar’ (13 th. century) and
some other saints who had become very popular among the people. Thus the love songs of
‘Vidyapati’ were very popular among the women folk and they sang these on various
occasions as wedding etc. Even today Maithili women’s culture is judged by the answer to
the question ‘what songs of ‘Vidyapati can you sing? Even if the people under stood the raga
of a composition, in most cases they are likely to observe the characteristics of the raga to
some extent only, but not in the strict classical sense.

The ‘Guru Grantha’ was one of the earliest written of various types of
‘padas’,’dupadas’,’tipadas’,’chaupadas’,’panchapadas’,’asthapadas’. The number of ‘padas’
in a song is the number of antaras it has. ‘Asthapadas’ like Jaidev’s ‘Gitagovinda’ has eight
antaras. In ‘Granth’ it is important because of the number of antaras in a song is one of the
major consideration in assigning it to a particular group of raga.

Antara – second section of a composition. Their contention becomes clear from the variety
of ‘padas’. ‘Guru Granth’ was compiled by Guru Arjun. It has collection of 5984 devotional
songs, composed mainly by five gurus- though they all sign their song with the same name-
Nanak , but the name of the guru who composed the song is known from the number of
‘Mahala’ recordings and compositions. ‘Mahala-5’ has the largest number of composition
(2216), by Guru Arjun Dev. ‘Mahala-1’ has 976 compositions by Guru Nanak Dev.

The history of these collection can be divided into two kinds:

(i) Thematic
(ii) Musical

The former type were compiled by ‘Dadu Panthis’only. Such as ‘Panchavani’ containing the
vanis of five gurus like –

(i) Dadu
(ii) Kabir
(iii) Namdev
(iv) Raidas
(v) Haridas

In each vani, the ‘sakhis’ and the ‘padas’ of one saint is given and ‘padas’ are arranged under
a particular raga in a pattern same as ‘Guru Granth’, which are meant to be sung.

In one musical group we find different raga for the same ‘pada’. The ‘padas’ of one saint is
given as one ‘corpus’ in which padas of other saints do not find a place. The ragas in which
the composition of medieval saints are found are as follows:

(i) Bilawal
(ii) Todi
(iii) Gaud
(iv) Sorath
(v) Mali-gaudi
(vi) Ramkeli
(vii) Vasant
(viii) Dhanshree
(ix) Kedari
(x) Ramgari
(xi) Asavari
(xii) Bhairav
(xiii) Sarang
 (xiv) Maru
(xv) Kalyan
(xvi) Malhar
(xvii) Kafi
(xviii) Kanada etc.

In ‘Guru Granth’ sahib also songs are not grouped thematically but grouped under thirty one
ragas, each raga group forming a chapter in the collection.

Some musichologists say that the name of the raga is mere a superscription without
reference to its context. They were expecting thematic connection between the songs.

Others have the opinion that a musical principle has been followed in arranging verses of
the Gurus,save a few exception – there is a distinct method of pattern in which the bhajans
have been arranged. The following factors determine in which particular raga group a song
was to be placed:

(i) The number of padas (stanza) in the bhajan.

(ii) Its gharu and its sankar raga
(iii) Its author

Gharu literally means ‘sets’ of the same raga. They seem to be variant in the same raga
pattern.

In sankar or hybrid raga like ‘Gaudi-majh’, Gaudi is the main raga. There is no information
about how these mixed ragas were formed, but it is correct to presume that the sankar form
was dominated by the raga under which they were listed.

Other division with a raga to specific melodies is associated with certain social group
like-‘Gaudi-guwareri’ (sung by milk man), ‘Gaudi bairagini’ gaudi sung by bairagis.

Instruments:

In bhajana and kirtana singing in North as well as in South, accompaniment was an essential
pattern.

In South – Sruti-box(drone), Mrdangam, Jalra(Cymbol), Gejjai(ankle bells) were more

common.

In North India, Ekatantri Vina, Cymbals, Tambura, Kartal, Flute, Drum were use. Most of the
instruments were very simple and some of them may be termed as folk instrument. Many of
the singers used to play an instrument while singing like – Mira, Sur. In south ‘Mrdangam’
was played by men, where as other instruments could be played by both men and women
singers.
Saints like Mirabai, Purandaradasa, Tyagarajee, Arunagirinath, preached through music and
condensed philosophy in a song. Dimdima and Mrdanga are mentioned among instruments
played by ladies for pleasure of king Ravana of Srilanka. Being well versed in the original
Sanskrit and Tamil text in music. ‘Arunagirinatha’ wove the basic concept of musical
grammer in his songs of the 16000 hymns(Triuppugazhs) – 1330 have been traced so far,
besides work likes ‘Kandar’,’Alamkaram’, ‘Antadi’,’Kandar anubhuti’’ in classical metres
&’Tiruvalmppu’ a group of poem in ‘Chamdappa’ poetic form in a variety of metrical pattern
made resonant with deep toned music.

‘Arunagiri’ drew from the new trends in composition which developed during 11 th. – 14th.
centuries. Kirtan form evolved by ‘Haridas’ of Karnataka and Tallapaka. Composers of Andra
Pradesh has talked about ‘Sapta Suladi tala’ parallel to the Marga and desi talas given by
‘Sarangadeva’ in Sangit Ratnakar.

Instead of Pallavi and Anupallavi and ‘Charana’ he adopted his own form- where each pada
is elaborated in ‘stanza’ of length-limited to four syllables corresponding to Tana-Tana or
‘Tanda-tana’.

In elaborated form we come across – ‘Tisra’,’Chasturasara’,’Khanda’,’Misra’ and ‘Sankirna’

grouping arising out of ‘Sapta-tala-jati system.

Bhatavetala, Vakuppu mentions five ‘Marga talas and names of many ragas-
‘Varati’,’Gaudi’,’Bhairavi’,’Lalit’,’Malhar’,’Bouli’,’Dhanyasi’ etc.

Seven notes as given in Tamil music, are indicated in ‘Tiruppugazh Ariyayan Putpikka’. He
also refers gammaks and technique of singing and playing instruments. He used the term
’Pancham’ when writing about instrumental music and mentions a number of instruments.

One feature may be noted while studying about religious musical form and rhythm is what
has been termed as ‘Responsorial monophony’ – when one person sings a devotional song
in congregation repeats the line in the same manner or with little variation as possible.
Though this is not common in ‘sloka’. This is noticeable in case of ‘kirtana’ and in the south
‘namavali’ performer and ‘pundarikam’.

Monophony – music consists of a single melodic line. This term is considered under two
categories:

(i) Accompanied
(ii) Unaccompanied

‘Kirtana’ may be performed solo or in congregation. We have no precise information how

the text of ‘kirtan’ were set to music, or how they were originally sung.

Poetic output of the ‘Alvira saints’ – ‘Jaideva’ (12th. century), ‘Namdev’(13th.

century),’Vidyapati’ (1360) ‘Chandidas’ (end of 14th. century), ‘Arunagirinath’ and others
were remarkably rich and varied. There was also considerable continuity in devotional form
of singing.

Jaidev’s ‘Gitgovinda’ was a source of inspiration to the composers of ‘Padavali-Kirtan) and is

served as the background of padavali kirtan in Bengal, even inspire the Karnatak composers
and south India. His work was the most important literary record during pre Chaitanya
‘Vaishnavism’ in Bengal.

Music text relationship of devotional songs

No modification in the text was attempted while singing ‘kirtanas’ and some other form of
devotional songs such as ‘namavalis’ – only part of a line of the text occasionally omitted
and a part of it was repeated by the solo singer to emphasize its importance. When a part
was omitted sometimes the congregation completed the remaining part. In some of the
‘namavalis’ only one word replaced by another, the rest of the words in both the lines of the
verse remaining the same.

The changes in the verse are small and related to what has gone before.

In ‘kirtana’, text of the refrain remains the same while the verses continuing the basic idea
of the song, changes from verse to verse. Another factor which serves as a relation between
the text and the music is – ‘Avarta(one cycle of tala) is of the same length as the textual line.
Since in devotional music text has the importance over music, changes in the text lines
consisted either repeating single word or fragments of line or even the complete lines. The
saints laid great emphasis on the recitation of the Gods name.

Time aspect of devotional songs –

The performance time must have varied due to various reasons including the length of the
text and the number of times a verse was repeated. Kirtan may consists of six or eight
‘charanas’, the last one often containing the ‘mudra’ of the composer and even today usual
‘kirtanas’ are musically and textually more complex, requires longer performance time than
others.

‘Pundarikams’ –the simplest- requires the least amount of time to perform.

‘Namavalis’ may last for about ten minutes depending on the number of times the words
and phrases are repeated.

‘Slokas’ are always performed in full – there may be some difference in repetition of some
lines. ‘Kirtan’ takes more time and the text is longer. Verses time may vary from one
composition to another and even from one verse to another within individual piece.

Devotional composition like ‘Namavalis’ only one single line is repeated over and over again,
the line comprised of two or three name of a deity. ‘Sloka’ usually consists of two or three
lines may or may not be repeated. The main difference lies in the fact that they are sung in
free rhythm. There is no ‘tala’ to mark the beat. The precise time measure of ‘kirtan’,
‘pallavi’, ‘pundarikams’ (which shows greater consistency in performance time) as sung in
South India these days.

At present, the correct rendering of the raga form of ‘Gitagovinda’ is very rare and differes
from region to region, or from one ‘sampradaya’ to another, though it is claimed that
correct rendering of ‘Gitagovinda’ gana are found in the temple of ‘Jaganath’ Puri in Orissa,
but afterwards it was found that the musicans of Tanjore (Tanjavur) exhibit their superiority
in the correct rendering of the tunes that are used in ‘Gitagovinda’.

We find twenty four song (ganas) set to 12 clssical ragas and five talas by ‘Jaideva’ were
somewhat different from the present time.

The ragas in the ‘Gitgovinda’ are:

(i) Malavgauda
(ii) Gurjari
(iii) Vasanta
(iv) Ramkeli
(v) Kanada
(vi) Bibhasa
(vii) Malva
(viii) Gundakiri
(ix) Bhairava
(x) Desakha
(xi) Bhairavi
(xii) Desa-Vardi

Talas are five as:

(i) Yati
(ii) Ektali
(iii) Rupaka
(iv) Nihsara
(v) Astatala

The same is the case with ‘Vidyapati’ padas (in praise of Shiva, Durga, Krishna, Radha,
Gopals) and love songs of Chandidas had adopted many lines from ‘Vidyapati’. Three or four
centuries- the whole of Eastern India resounded with a new type of literature ‘padavali’.
From Bengal the name of ‘Vidyapati’ as a vaisnava singer spread to Orissa and Assam. The
new literature was written in ‘Brij-bhasa’ of which the base was ‘Maithili’ language of
‘Vidyapati’. Three great vaisnva devotees of east are – Chaitanya of Bengal, Sankaradeva of
Assam and Ramanand Raya of Orissa were inspired by the love songs of ‘Vidyapati’ . His
hymns addressed to Durga are still recited in ‘Maithili’ homes.
‘Vidyapati’ was born in 1360 A.D. in Darbhanga district in Bihar. In 1403 A.D. he was at the
court of Raja Shiv Singh of Tirhut. Most of the padas of his ‘padavalis’ are of ‘sringara’ rasa in
which Radha and Krishna are nayika and nayaka.

Sankaradeva described above as one of the three great vaisnava devotee of the east. Born
in 1449 in Bardowa village of Nowyong district of Assam, he was a Kayastha. After visiting
some holy places like Puri, Gaya, Mathura, Vrindaban etc. he composed some selection of
his most popular work ’Kirtan-Ghosa’ which contained tales from “bhagabat-Purana and
other holy text. The form of Vaishnavism evolved by him is known as ‘Religion of prayers
with ultimate refuge to God. He left behind a very rich legacy of classical tradition in music
and dancing’ to his people. There are songs such as ‘ghosa(couplet), bar-gita(a type of song
tuned to different melody- modes). ‘Kirtan ghosa’ sometimes forming a part of the long
narrative. He wrote a number of works in which stories of ‘Bhagavata Purana’ and other
puranas are retold in simple verses; besides six dramas containing a number of songs which
are still popular, ‘Chandidas’, a great Vaishnava poet of Bengal also flourished at that time.
He preceded ‘SriChaitanya’ who listen to his poem along with ‘Vidyapati’ and ‘Jaiev’. His
works are known as ‘Sri Krishna Kirtana’ wrote numerous songs deal with divine power of
Krishna and Radha.

The songs of ‘Chandidas’ are often sung in solo followed by chorus before gathering of
devotees. The fifteenth.century was surprisingly rich in producing saint composers in all
parts of India giving rise to what is known as ‘Bhakti Movement’. The contribution of these
saints to music was profound, though some cases not at the classical level. Among these we
may also mention about ‘Tallapaka Annandamachariya’(1424) of Andhra Pradesh. He was
regarded as a devotee of ‘Venkateswara’ and composed many ‘slokas’, besides writing a
number of works. He regarded his songs as flower offerings to the God. They are
‘Samkirtana’- since they all praise the God. His love for his God is profound and so personal
that at some songs he converses with him. A large number of his songs are full of ‘madhur-
bhakti’ but he keeps balance between the sensual and spiritual. Each ong comprises ‘pallavi’
state the theme of the song very occasionally an ‘anupallivi’ and usually three musically
identical four-lines’charana’. ‘Pallivi’ state the theme of the song which the’charanas’
elaborate.His listeners felt that he was ‘Narada’ or ‘Tambura’ reborn. Unfortunately there is
no living tradition of singing his songs, although after several decades after him, his songs
were sung daily at ‘tirumala’ and ‘Bhajanakutas’. Some copper plates mention only raga of
the song, but musical form and tala which ‘Annamayya’ has assigned to it is not known. In
his songs ‘sahitya’ gets precedence over music unlike ‘kritis’ of Tyagaraja and others. He also
composed ‘suladis’ through only one ‘desi suladi’ is available having both ‘Talamalika’ and
‘Ragamalika’. It begins with ‘Malavgaud’ and ends with ‘Sri’. In between there are closely
related ragas such as ‘Ramakriya’,’Varti’,’Bouli’Padi’,’and ‘Nata’ are employed.
Although ‘Annamachariya’ used in his song about 100 ragas, but many of them
like,’Abali’,’Saukaravaranam’,’Amarsindhi’etc. have become obsolete. However ragas like
‘Mukhari’,’Khamboji’,’Dev-gandhari’,’ahiri’, ‘Sri’,’bharavi’ are popular even today.

Almost about this time- Mira’s devotional songs became highly popular in Rajasthan,
Gujrat’,’Vraja’ and other region. She was born in 1504 A.D. the daughter of Ratan Sing and
granddaughter of Rao Jodha, the founder of ‘Jodhpur’. She was married to Prince Bhoj, son
of rana Sangha of Mewer. Her married life from the beginning was not so happy due to her
total devotion towards ‘Giridhara Gopala’ – when she regarded as her eternal consort. Her
songs and dance before deity appeared very unconventional for a young lady of the royal
family. Her tragedy was deep by premature death of her husband and shortly after that her
father and brother were also fighting against Babar. Maharana Sangha passed away in the
next year and Mewar experienced darkest period of its glorious history. Mira went to
Vrindavan, met Jib Goswami, the deciple of ‘Chaitanya’ mahaprabhu and then to Dwarka
having virtually cut her off from the royal family. She passed away around 1560 A.D. Precise
date of Mira’s death is not known.

Giba Goswami wrote a number of works on ‘Chaitanya’. His concept of ‘rasa’ with ‘krishna’
as the object and bhakta as ‘rasika’. Giba Goswami regarded ‘sringera’ as the most
important of the five main ‘rasas’. Music has a very important place in the practice of
‘Gaudiya Sampradaya’. Mira’s devotional songs and padas are sung all over India, but
specially in Rajasthan and Gujrat. Her ‘madhura bhakti’ and ‘kanta bhava’ are reflected in
her devotional songs which have characteristics of sweet melody, ardent love for ‘Krishna’
and unaffected style, free from literary complications. Her songs seems to come straight
from her heart.

There are number of collections of Mira’s bhajans, amongst these may be mentioned ‘Mira
Bai Ka padavali, ‘Mira Mandakini’ etc.

According to one view, it is doubtful that Mira sang her devotional songs according to
‘Sangit Sastra’. She seems to have preferred such ragas and raginis which are popular and
commonly sung in Rajasthan and Gujrat and which were suited for wordings and ‘bhabas’ of
her song like- Maru, Mevada, Mand and folk tunes sung on different occasions like Hori,
Kajri, savan etc. These were popular among people. Besides during bhajan sessions in
temple, the assembled devotees used to repeat a part of the line or pada as common as
kirtan style. When singing alone before her deity, she must have composed her song in raga
‘Bhairava’ or ‘Pilu’ oe ‘Komal Rishav asavari’, expressive of bairagya.

There are some padas of Mira which mention raga and tala to be used in their rendering.
But we cannot be sure that Mira composed these padas or not.

To some extent same thing can be said about ‘Tulsi’ and ‘Sur’. In ‘Vinayak Patrika’ Tulsi das
has mentioned ragas like ‘Bilawal’, ‘Maru’ ,’Ramkali’,’Bhairava’,’Vasant’,’Asavari’,’Saranga’,
Lalit’ Gauri, Kedar, Kanada etc. in which ‘Stutis’ composed by him were to be sung, but their
raga forms used in his time are not precisely known.

Surdas knowledge of music was simply astonishing. In a single composition

describing,’Shyam-Shyama-Krishna’ was there. He mentioned 6 ragas and 36 raginis. Sur
sagar’ we find the mention of composition in raga Bilawal only 630 padas, in raga Sarang
605 in malhar – 328, In Ramkali – 245 and other ragas were also there.

His ‘dhamar’ gitas are suitable for being sung in ‘dhruta laya’. He has sparsely mentioned the
tala of his pada. Only 5 padas composed by him are in ‘tritala’.

Surdas has a thorough understanding of fundamentals of Indian Classical music. He calls it

one of the 64 kalas. He has discussed the concept of Nada in many of his pada and knew the
importance of 22 srutis and sapta svaras. It is clear from his padas, that he knew about the
concept of murchana, grama, tala, six ragas and thirty six raginis, alapa, tana etc.

Bilawal, Sarang, Dhanasri, Malhar, were the favourite ragas of Sur. His ‘Sur-sagar’ begins
with ‘Bilawal and ends with ‘Bilawal’. Being morning raga suddha svaras are most suitable
for prayer. Some of the ragas which Sur has used for his verse are not in practice any more.
He choose the raga keeping the theme in mind – like Sarang, Dhanasri, Kalyan etc. is used
for Krishna lila, Panaghata lila, and Krishna pranks. Raga ‘Bilawal’, ‘Asavari, Lalit, Bhairav,
Todi etc. are used for joyful occasion, when Krishna would be woken up by gentle singing
uses ‘Lalit’, ‘Bhairav’, ‘Todi’, etc. and late in the night for Krishna sayana seva, ‘Adana’,
‘Maikauns’, ‘Kanada’ etc are used.