History and Development of Indian Music
This domain tests chronology and causation: which text codified what, when the Hindustani and Carnatic streams separated, and how reform movements in the 20th century changed teaching. Odisha's own musical lineage is also fair ground.
Early texts
- Sama Veda recitation used seven notes with the udatta, anudatta and svarita accents - the earliest traceable Indian scale practice.
- Bharata's Natyashastra (c. 2nd century BCE–2nd century CE) systematised 22 shrutis, the gramas (shadja, madhyama, gandhara), murchhana and jati.
- Matanga's Brihaddeshi (c. 8th–9th century) is the first text to define raga as distinct from jati, and to distinguish margi from deshi music.
Medieval synthesis
- Sharngadeva's Sangita Ratnakara (13th century, Devagiri) treats prabandha, raga and tala in seven chapters and is the last great shared Sanskrit authority before the northern and southern systems diverge.
- Regional treatises: Ramamatya's Swaramela Kalanidhi (16th c.), Ahobala's Sangita Parijata (17th c.), Venkatamakhin's Chaturdandi Prakashika (17th c.).
- Court patronage: Amir Khusrau's traditional attributions, Tansen at Akbar's court, dhrupad under Raja Man Singh Tomar of Gwalior.
Modern reform
- V. N. Bhatkhande (1860–1936): ten-thaat scheme, Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati, a usable notation, music conferences, Marris College, Lucknow (1926).
- V. D. Paluskar (1872–1931): Gandharva Mahavidyalaya (1901) and notation-based mass teaching.
- After 1947: All India Radio, Sangeet Natak Akademi (1952), systematic gharana documentation.
Odisha strand
Jayadeva's Gita Govinda (12th century) is the core repertoire of Odissi Sangita, its astapadis set to Odissi ragas and talas; the later Odia treatise Sangita Narayana, attributed to Gajapati Narayana Deva, is a key regional source.
Worked example
"Trace the earliest textual definition of raga." Answer path: the Natyashastra speaks of jati, not raga; Matanga's Brihaddeshi first defines raga; the Ratnakara codifies the system. Marks are for text + author + approximate century, not for a vague 'ancient times'.
Traps
Wrong dates (Ratnakara is 13th, not 11th century); crediting the ten thaats to Paluskar; stating as fact that Amir Khusrau 'invented' the sitar or tabla - these are traditions, not documented history.