Maharashtra HSC History and Development of Indian Music cheat sheet

Rigvedic hymns name the string instrument vana and the percussion gargara; the seven-stringed saptatantri veena appears in later Vedic and epic literature as the archetypal chordophone.

Sama Veda is the earliest Indian text whose recitation was marked with svara signs - udatta (raised), anudatta (lowered) and svarita (falling circumflex) - the remote ancestor of the seven-svara scale.

The singable Sama Veda corpus is grouped into four ganas: Gramageya (sung in settlements), Aranyageya (sung only in the forest), Uha and Uhya (ritual adaptations).

Sama chant uses seven sama svaras - krushta, prathama, dvitiya, tritiya, chaturtha, mandra and atisvarya - later mapped onto the classical sapta svara scheme.

Bharata's Natyashastra (roughly 200 BCE to 200 CE) fixes 22 shrutis in a saptak, seven svaras from Shadja to Nishada, the shadja and madhyama gramas, murchhanas and jatis.

Bharata's 22 shrutis are named Tivra, Kumudvati, Manda, Chandovati, Dayavati, Ranjani, Ratika, Raktika, Raudri, Krodha, Vajrika, Prasarini, Priti, Priyadarshini, Meghala, Marjjani, Kshiti, Rakta, Sandipini, Alapini, Madanti and Rohini.

The gandhara grama is described in theory but was already obsolete in practice; only shadja grama and madhyama grama remained usable for deriving murchhanas.

Matanga's Brihaddeshi (about 8th to 9th century) is the first surviving text to use raga as a technical term and to separate marga (classical, pan-regional) from deshi (regional, popular) music.

Jati, the pre-raga classification found in the Natyashastra and Brihaddeshi, names melodic types after regions and peoples - for example Andhri, Gurjari and Kambhoji - and is analysed by aroha, avaroha and nyasa svara.

Amir Khusrau (1253–1325), poet-musician of the Delhi Sultanate, is traditionally credited with qawwali, the tarana and the first experiments towards khayal, and with popularising Persian modes at Indian courts.

Sharangadeva's Sangita Ratnakara (about 1247) has seven chapters - svaragata, ragaviveka, prakirnaka, prabandha, tala, vadya and nritya - and treats 22 shrutis, gramas, murchhanas and over 250 ragas.

Sufi sama, the practice of listening to music as a spiritual discipline in Chishti khanqahs, legitimised music-making and produced qawwali in Persian, Braj and Hindi verse.

Faqirullah's Rag Darpan (1666) and the Tarjuma-i-Parijat, a Persian translation of Ahobala's Sangita Parijata, carried Indian raga theory into Persian-language scholarship.

Khayal matured in the 18th century at Muhammad Shah Rangile's court under the pen names Sadarang (Nyamat Khan) and Adarang (Firoz Khan), whose compositions are still sung.

Dhrupad, descended from the medieval prabandha, is classified into four vanis - Gaudi, Khandar, Nauhar and Dagar - of which the Dagar stream is the principal surviving one.

The Ashtachhap, eight poet-devotees of the Vallabhacharya sect (Surdas, Paramananddas, Kumbhandas, Krishnadas, Govindswami, Chhitswami, Chaturbhujdas and Nanddas), supplied the Braj-language pada repertoire of Haveli Sangeet and dhrupad.

Raja Man Singh Tomar of Gwalior's Man Kautuhal (about 1480) describes ragas and raginis and admits Muslim ('mlechha') ragas, evidence of an already Indo-Persian melodic repertoire; Gwalior became a leading dhrupad centre.

Tansen (about 1500–1589), a navaratna of Akbar's court, is credited with ragas such as Miyan ki Todi, Miyan ki Malhar and Darbari Kanada, and his descendants formed the Seni gharana of rababiyas and beenkars.

V. N. Bhatkhande (1860–1936) wrote Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati in four volumes, classifying practice-based ragas under ten thaats and supplying lakshana-geet for teaching.

Bhatkhande's ten thaats with their altered svaras: Bilawal (all shuddha), Khamaj (komal Ni), Kafi (komal Ga and Ni), Asavari (komal Ga, Dha, Ni), Bhairavi (all four komal), Bhairav (komal Re and Dha), Kalyan (tivra Ma), Marwa (komal Re with tivra Ma), Purvi (komal Re, Dha with tivra Ma), Todi (komal Re, Ga, Dha with tivra Ma).

Bhatkhande convened the first All India Music Conference at Baroda in 1916 and founded the Marris College of Hindustani Music at Lucknow in 1926, now the Bhatkhande Music Institute Deemed University.

V. D. Paluskar (1872–1931) opened the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya at Lahore in 1901, teaching music irrespective of caste or gender, and wrote Sangeet Balbodh as a Devanagari primer.

The two rival notations: Paluskar's compact Devanagari sargam with in-line tala numerals, and Bhatkhande's system of dashes, octave dots and komal/tivra marks, which dominated school and university textbooks.

Institutional scaffolding: All India Radio (1936) and its Sangeet Sammelans, Sangeet Natak Akademi (1952), NCPA Mumbai (1969) and ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata (1978).

The Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal, now based at Miraj in Maharashtra, grew out of Paluskar's movement and conducts graded music examinations (Praveshika to Visharad) across India.

Marathi sangeet natak carried reformed music to the public: Bal Gandharva (N. S. Rajhans) in Sangeet Saubhadra and Manapman, with composers such as Govindrao Tembe and Master Krishnarao.

Harmonium, though barred from All India Radio as a solo instrument for decades, became the standard teaching drone and accompaniment in Maharashtra's music schools and kirtan practice.

Gharana literally means 'household': a lineage of style transmitted within a family or through guru-shishya teaching, usually named after the city where the style crystallised.

Khayal gharanas and their markers: Gwalior (Hassu, Haddu and Nathu Khan; oldest; clear raga shape, nom-tom), Agra (Faiyaz Khan; heavy laya, nom-tom, forceful aakar), Kirana (Abdul Karim Khan and Abdul Wahid Khan; slow tempo, sustained meend, sargam), Jaipur-Atrauli (Alladiya Khan; rare and compound ragas, bol-banao), Patiala (Bade Ghulam Ali Khan; tappa-inflected fast taans), Bhendi Bazaar (Chhajju Khan, Nazir Khan, Khadim Hussain Khan), Indore (Amir Khan) and Rampur-Sahaswan (Inayat Hussain Khan).

Dhrupad is carried by the Dagar, Darbhanga (Bidur Mallik) and Bettiah gharanas; the Seni tradition split into rababiya (rabab players) and beenkar (rudra veena players) descended from Tansen.

Thumri gharanas differ by text treatment: Lucknow favours delicate bol-banao, Banaras (Siddheshwari Devi, Girija Devi) a bolder ang with khayal-like taans, and Patiala a khayal-influenced presentation.

Gharanas are distinguished by raga choice, preferred tempo, design of taan and vistaar, pronunciation of bols, and the relative weight given to bol-banao versus pure sargam.

Tappa, a fast and knotty form, originated in the songs of Punjab's camel drivers and was refined in Lucknow by Shori Miyan (Ghulam Nabi), with text largely in Punjabi.

Dhrupad singing is classified by vani, khayal by gharana, and thumri by ang; a performer's gharana is identified more by ornament habit and phrasing than by repertoire alone.

Kirana-style sargam and Agra-style nom-tom are diagnostic ornaments: a long unbroken meend points to Kirana training, while rhythmic nom-tom bols point to Agra or Gwalior.

The medieval prabandha, with its parts udgraha, melapaka, dhruva, antara and abhoga, is the direct ancestor of dhrupad, whose four sections are sthayi, antara, sanchari and abhoga.

Dhrupad is sung to pakhavaj in Chautal (12 matras), Dhamar (14), Jhaptal (10) and Teental (16), opening with nom-tom alap before the composition.

Dhamar, a 14-matra form on pakhavaj, sets Holi and Krishna themes and is distinguished from dhrupad by its rolling, playful rhythm.

Khayal has two tiers: bada khayal in vilambit laya (often Ektal 12 or slow Teental 16), with alap, vistaar and taan, followed by chhota khayal in drut laya built on a short asthai-antara.

Tarana sets meaningless syllables - tanana, derena, tom, yaal ali, nadir dir-dir - to a raga and tala in drut laya; the Carnatic equivalent is the tillana.

Semi-classical forms: thumri (usually Dadra 6 or Kaharwa 8, with bol-banao or bol-banti), dadra, tappa, hori, chaiti, kajri, sawan, jhoola and ghazal.

Carnatic forms in performance order include geetam, swarajati, varnam, kriti, ragam-tanam-pallavi, tillana, javali, padam and mangalam.

Marathi forms include natya sangeet, bhavgeet, lavani, povada, abhang, bhajan and kirtan; natya sangeet borrows ragas and talas but is theatrically paced.

A typical Hindustani recital sequence runs alap-jod-jhala (dhrupad) or bada khayal, chhota khayal, tarana, thumri, and a concluding bhajan.

Nada is sound in general, divided into ahata (struck, produced by voice or instrument) and anahata (unstruck, conceived as inner yogic sound).

A saptak holds 22 shrutis in theory but is used as 12 svaras: seven shuddha (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni), four komal (Re, Ga, Dha, Ni) and one tivra (Ma); Sa and Pa are achal, never altered.

Three sthanas are used - mandra, madhya and tar - written with dots below and above the svara in notation.

Raga notes are ranked: vadi (sonant, most emphasised), samvadi (consonant, usually 8 or 12 shrutis from the vadi), anuvadi (assonant) and vivadi (dissonant, avoided).

Jati classifies a raga's note count: audav (5), shadav (6) and sampurna (7); a note omitted in a raga is called varja, and a characteristic identifying phrase is the pakad.

Tala vocabulary: matra (beat), vibhag (bar), sam (first beat), tali (clap), khali (wave of the hand), avartan (cycle); laya is vilambit, madhya or drut, and layakari is barabar, dugun, tigun or chaugun.

Acoustics: pitch rises with frequency; the octave is a 2:1 ratio; equal temperament divides it into 1200 cents (100 per semitone); Sa-Pa (3:2) and Sa-Ma (4:3) are the consonant harmonic ratios.

Ornaments: meend (glide), kan (grace note), murki and khatka (quick clusters), zamzama, gamak and sparsh (touching from an adjacent note).

Raga grammar terms: aroha and avaroha (ascent and descent), chalan (path), vistar (elaboration), tana (fast phrase), palta (sequence), and alankar (ornamental pattern).

Sama Veda manuscripts preserve the earliest Indian svara notation: accent marks written above or below the syllable to indicate udatta, anudatta and svarita.

Bhatkhande notation: svaras in Devanagari; a dash lengthens a note; a dot below or above shifts octave; underlining marks komal; a vertical stroke or arrow marks tivra Ma; 0 marks khali and numbers or crosses mark tali and sam.

Paluskar notation uses Devanagari sargam with tala numerals written inside the line, giving a more compact page; it remains in use in Gandharva Mahavidyalaya publications.

Tala notation across Indian systems uses × or 1 for sam, 0 for khali, other digits for tali, and vertical bars to separate vibhags.

Key theoretical manuscripts: Natyashastra (Bharata), Brihaddeshi (Matanga), Sangita Ratnakara (Sharangadeva), Sangita Parijata (Ahobala), Raga Tarangini (Lochan Kavi, 16th century), Sangeet Darpan (Damodar Pandit, 17th century), Rag Darpan (Faqirullah, 1666).

Venkatamakhin's Chaturdandi Prakashika (about 1660) established the 72 melakarta scheme that underpins Carnatic raga numbering and notation to this day.

Ragamala paintings are not notation, but they document raga-ragini classification and iconography and are studied alongside melodic manuscripts.

Notation cannot capture shruti placement, meend or gamak exactly, so oral transmission and recorded archives remain essential to preserving raga performance.

Lavani is Maharashtra's fast song-dance form performed in tamasha with dholki, tuntuni, manjira and dimdi; its broad types are nirguni (philosophical) and shringari (erotic-sentimental).

Povada is the Marathi heroic ballad narrating the exploits of Shivaji's warriors such as Tanaji Malusare, delivered in a declamatory style with dholki and tuntuni.

Abhang is the Varkari devotional song to Vithoba, composed by Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram, Janabai and Muktabai, and sung in bhajan and kirtan with taal and pakhavaj.

Maharashtra's kirtan has two streams: Naradiya kirtan (bhajan, katha and abhang) and Varkari kirtan, both led by a kirtankar with harmonium, tabla and cymbals.

Gondhal is a ritual performance for the goddess by the Gondhali community using sambal, dimdi and taal; bharud is Eknath's dramatic solo song form combining verse, dance and moral comment.

Regional forms to match with states: Baul and Bhatiali (Bengal), Bihu (Assam), Garba and Dandiya (Gujarat), Maand and Panihari (Rajasthan), Alha (Bundelkhand), Pandavani (Chhattisgarh), Burrakatha (Andhra), Villu Pattu (Tamil Nadu), Bhangra and Gidda (Punjab).

Seasonal and ritual songs of the Hindi belt include kajri (Sawan/monsoon), chaiti (Chaitra month), hori (Holi), sohar (childbirth) and sanskar geet (life-cycle rites).

Folk-to-classical routes: tappa grew from Punjab camel-drivers' songs, thumri absorbed folk tunes of the Gangetic plain, and lavani melodies fed into Marathi natya sangeet.

Maharashtra's folk instruments include dholki, tuntuni (single-string), ektari, halgi, dimdi, sambal, ghunghru and manjira; the shahanai and choughada appear in ritual ensembles.