Maharashtra HSC History and Development of Indian Music flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Sama Veda ganas

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

Udatta, anudatta, svarita

The three accents of Vedic recitation: udatta is raised, anudatta is lowered and svarita is the falling circumflex. These marks are the earliest surviving Indian svara notation.

Natyashastra

Bharata's Sanskrit treatise on drama and music, dated roughly 200 BCE to 200 CE, which sets out twenty-two shrutis, seven svaras, two gramas, murchhanas and jatis.

Brihaddeshi

A treatise by Matanga, dated around the eighth to ninth century, which first uses raga as a technical term and separates marga (classical) from deshi (regional) music.

Amir Khusrau

Thirteenth-century poet-musician of the Delhi Sultanate, traditionally credited with creating qawwali and the tarana and with early experiments that led towards khayal.

Sangita Ratnakara

Sharangadeva's thirteenth-century music encyclopaedia in seven chapters covering svara, raga, prabandha, tala, instruments and dance; a key link between ancient and medieval theory.

Sadarang and Adarang

Pen names of Nyamat Khan and Firoz Khan, eighteenth-century composers at Muhammad Shah's court, whose khayal compositions shaped the modern bada and chhota khayal.

Dhrupad's four vanis

The four stylistic streams of dhrupad: Gaudi, Khandar, Nauhar and Dagar. Each differed in ornament and alap style; mainly the Dagar tradition survives today.

Bhatkhande's ten thaats

Bilawal, Khamaj, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi, Bhairav, Kalyan, Marwa, Purvi and Todi, the scale-types V. N. Bhatkhande used to classify Hindustani ragas.

Gandharva Mahavidyalaya

Music school founded by V. D. Paluskar at Lahore in 1901 and later moved to Mumbai, notable for teaching across caste lines and publishing Devanagari notation.

All India Music Conference, 1916

The first conference convened at Baroda by V. N. Bhatkhande, which brought musicians of different gharanas together and pressed for a common notation and syllabus.

Sangeet Natak Akademi

India's national academy for music, dance and drama, established in 1952, which awards fellowships and honours and documents living performing traditions.

Gwalior gharana

The oldest khayal gharana, associated with Hassu Khan, Haddu Khan and Nathu Khan, known for clear raga presentation, medium tempo and nom-tom alankar.

Kirana gharana

Khayal gharana founded by Abdul Karim Khan and Abdul Wahid Khan, marked by slow tempo, sustained notes, smooth meend and extensive sargam.

Jaipur-Atrauli gharana

Gharana of Alladiya Khan, famous for uncommon and compound ragas and for bol-banao, where the words of the composition drive the improvisation.

Tappa

A fast, rhythmically intricate song form that grew from camel drivers' songs of Punjab and was developed in Lucknow by Shori Miyan; its text is mostly Punjabi.

Dhrupad's four sections

Sthayi (opening), antara (second), sanchari (third, wandering) and abhoga (concluding). These four sections together structure a dhrupad composition.

Bada and chhota khayal

Bada khayal is slow, with elaborate alap, vistaar and taan; chhota khayal is a short fast composition in drut laya, usually following it in the same raga.

Tarana

A fast composition using meaningless syllables such as tanana, derena, tom and yaal ali instead of poetry, set to a raga and tala; the Carnatic equivalent is tillana.

Kajri

A semi-classical and folk song of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar sung in the monsoon month of Sawan, with themes of separation and longing, accompanied by dholak.

Vadi and samvadi

The vadi is the most emphasised note of a raga and the samvadi the second most important, usually eight or twelve shrutis away; the rest are anuvadi, with discordant ones called vivadi.

Ahata and anahata nada

Indian theory divides sound into ahata, the struck or audible sound of voices and instruments, and anahata, the unstruck inner sound heard in yogic practice.

Laya and layakari

Laya is tempo, classed as vilambit, madhya or drut; layakari is the deliberate rendering of a composition at multiples of that tempo, as barabar, dugun, tigun or chaugun.

Aroha and avaroha

The ascending and descending order of svaras in a raga. Sa and Pa are achal or fixed; a note omitted in a raga is called varja.

Bhatkhande notation symbols

Svaras are written in Devanagari; a dash lengthens, a dot below or above shifts octave, underlining marks komal, a vertical stroke marks tivra Ma, and 0 marks khali.

Sangita Parijata

Ahobala's seventeenth-century treatise on shrutis, svara placement and the fretting of the veena, translated into Persian as Tarjuma-i-Parijat and known at Mughal courts.

Raga Tarangini

A sixteenth-century work by Lochan Kavi that classifies ragas into raga, ragini and putra groups and links each melodic form with a specific rasa.

Chaturdandi Prakashika

Venkatamakhin's seventeenth-century Carnatic treatise that sets out the seventy-two melakarta scheme, the basis of later Carnatic raga classification and notation.

Lavani

A Marathi folk and semi-classical song-dance form in fast tempo, performed in tamasha with dholki and tuntuni; its two broad types are nirguni and shringari.

Povada

A Marathi heroic ballad recounting the exploits of Shivaji's warriors such as Tanaji Malusare, sung in declamatory style with dholki and tuntuni accompaniment.

Abhang

A Marathi devotional song addressed to Vithoba, composed by saints such as Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath and Tukaram and sung in Varkari bhajan and kirtan.

Baul

A Bengali mystical folk-song tradition of wandering singers using ektara and dotara, whose texts speak of the search for the divine within the human body.