Music of the Vedas
India has one of the most ancient tradition in the world .At a time when Western civilisation was barbaric and crude , thousands of years before the rise of the Greeks and the Romans ,we already had a complex and sophisticated musical tradition.
Our music began in the ages of the vedas.Before that we have a statue of a dancing girl from Mehenjo Daro, and a stringed instruments from the ruins of Lothal, but no other information of knowledge of thier musical traditions.
The vedic period saw the beginning of what is today knows as a SAMA music. Sama Music was very simple ,starting with one note ,then two ,then three ,up to seven.In each round of chanting,
one note was added . The notes started high,and went low gradually.
Our vedic ancestors used four kinds of instruments:
Tata: Stringed instruments like the Veena
Avanaddha:Hollow things to beat,like drums
Ghana :Solid things to beats ,like gongs
Sushira:Things to blow on,like flutes.
Narad munis works gave the gatra veena,which has clear instructions on how to use fingers, hands and heads with different notes and words. The words were were taken from Rigveda, but there were 75 hymns which were non-vedic , belonging to the earlier dravidian culture.
Very early on, Aryan music built in popular non-Aryan words and tunes. So mixing of cultures started early in India, through the simple medium of music.
Everything was not religious in nature at that time.Sama music was for rituals,but early music scholars also mention narashamshi gathas-songs of the common man. So we have been a democratic nation for a pretty long time too-at least when it comes to music..
Nisheeth Ranjan
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