The Origin Story of Music 

This is by no means a small topic that can be explained away in a short blog. I am part of an active Whatsapp group of my classmates from another era and we routinely discuss topics of this kind apart from ephemeral current affairs not including religion, politics and thankfully, sleaze. This was my considered response to an innocuous question from a curious classmate. Poor guy, he didn't know what he was in for!! :-)

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This may be a huge topic that this WhatsApp group may not be able to support. I am no musicologist; just a devoted practitioner. Since the real expert, Ramesh⁩ is only listening to the sounds of the lapping waves of the ocean right now, I will just point out a few things I know.

Carnatic music is supposed to have originated in Samaveda and many epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata also mention music ( sAmagAnam) and musical instruments like Veena. Then, there are Azhwars (vaishnavite saints) and Nayanmars ( Shaivaite saints) of likely 6th to 8th CE who poured out a profusion of devotional poetry in specific musical structures (paNn, pAsuram). Then, we jump to Annamacharya (early 15th CE) and Purandaradasa and many other dasas (15th-16th CE). Purandara set out a music pedagogy which is still used. There was Narayana teertha (17th CE), Trinity (18th-19th CE) followed by their far and wide lineage network (Parampara) that continues to spread out.

In terms of languages, all South Indian languages apart from Sanskrit find huge presence in Carnatic music. Currently, however music of all languages is Kosher especially towards the end of the concert. However, the tunes are unmistakably Carnatic but the treatment may be modern with instant appeal.

In terms of compositional elements, devotion assumes a primary focus but there are 9 types of devotion (nava vidha bhakti) which includes insult (Ninda stuti). All of them are employed apart from purely spiritual songs like those of Sadashiva Brahmendra (17th-18th CE). 

Coming to types of compositions, there is varnam (technical, intricate), Kriti ( a predominant form with 2 or 3 part structure), viRuttam or shloka in a free melodic vein, rAgam-tAnam-pallavi (one or two lines of evocative poetry set to intricate melodic and rhythmic patterns with a lot of improvisation), neRaval (one of the lines of a kriti sung in improvised melodic variations but in strict rhythm of the Kriti), swaram (improvised note patterns sung on the fly in strict rhythm of the song again), Thillana (like Tharana which is quite a foot tapping number typically.. And quite challenging to deliver). There are also just pallavis which are super hard and are a super specialization. Even erotic, shringara poetry find their place with jAvaLis set to attractive tunes. There are then Thiruppavai, Thiruppugal, Thevarams etc. set to music. They don't necessarily follow a kriti structure and are mostly re-tuned as original tunes didn't survive.

I love Dhrupad, mesmerized by its flow which reminds me of tAnam in Carnatic. But it is certainly distinct iand is supposed to have influenced Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar during his sojourn with Chidambaranatha yogi in Varanasi. I had a chance to listen to a disciple of Dagar brothers and the music has divine appeal.

Overall, both Carnatic and Hindustani have a lot of parallels till 11th CE or so but since then, Carnatic continued to thrive without external influences from outside Bharat. I surmise that Persian influences played a significant role in differentiating Hindustani music further into a distinct genre of its own.

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