Music of India

Indian music constitutes one of the world’s oldest and most diverse musical cultures, shaped across millennia by the subcontinent’s vast geographical expanse, linguistic plurality, and rich socioreligious traditions. It encompasses a wide spectrum of genres, including classical, folk, devotional, film, popular, and contemporary fusion forms. Music in India emerged as an integral element of ritual, performance, and community life, developing distinctive characteristics in different regions while maintaining shared aesthetic principles.

Prehistoric and early archaeological evidence

Evidence of musical expression in India extends deep into prehistory. Rock art at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh, dated to approximately 30,000 years ago, depicts dancing figures and suggests the presence of rhythmic performance in Palaeolithic and Mesolithic communities. Later Chalcolithic paintings at the same site portray early musical instruments such as gongs, lyres, and frame drums. Excavations at Sankarjang in Odisha have uncovered polished stone celts thought to have been used as idiophonic instruments in the Neolithic period.
The Indus Valley Civilisation, flourishing around 2500 BCE, has yielded further clues. Sculptures and pottery motifs depict dancers and musicians, including the well-known bronze ‘Dancing Girl’ and images of individuals playing drums. These archaeological findings indicate that music and dance were embedded in the cultural and ceremonial life of early urban societies.

Vedic and ancient literary traditions

The earliest textual references to music in South Asia appear in the Vedic corpus (c.1500–800 BCE). The Samaveda, a liturgical collection derived from earlier Vedic hymns, outlines methods for chanting and prescribes melodic patterns, thereby constituting one of the earliest systematic treatments of musical practice. Concepts central to later Indian music—including tāla (rhythm), svara (note), śruti (microtone), and mūrchanā (scale)—have antecedents in these hymns and associated ritual manuals.
Post-Vedic literature such as the Ramayana (c.500–100 BCE) makes extensive reference to musical performance. Characters including apsaras and gandharvas are portrayed singing, dancing, and playing instruments such as the vīṇā, rudra vīṇā, vipañchī and early reed and wind instruments like the śaṅkha and venu. The text alludes to melodic frameworks such as rāga and identifies distinctions in tempo—druta, madhya, and vilambit—which remain foundational in classical music.

Tamil traditions and Sangam literature

In southern India, early Tamil works such as Tolkāppiyam (c.500 BCE) contain detailed references to music. The Sangam corpus (c.300 BCE–300 CE) associates specific melodic modes, known as pann, with particular landscapes and emotional contexts. Works such as Maturaikkāñci and commentaries on Cilappatikāram describe an elaborate system of modes, rhythmic patterns, and instruments, including the yazh (lute) and flute. Over time, the ancient pann system evolved, contributing to the formation of the svara structure of Carnatic music, though Tamil music retained heptatonic principles from an early period.

Medieval musicology and regional developments

The medieval period witnessed significant codification of musical knowledge. The thirteenth-century text Saṅgīta Ratnākara, composed by Śārṅgadeva, became a landmark treatise accepted within both Hindustani and Carnatic systems. It expounds the theory of rāga, tāla, rhythmic cycles, and performance practice, bridging earlier Sanskritic traditions with evolving regional forms.
Regional traditions flourished during these centuries. The Odra-Magadhi style of eastern India was shaped by poet-composer Jayadeva, whose Gīta Govinda profoundly influenced Odissi music. Assamese literature, including Madhava Kandali’s fourteenth-century Saptakanda Ramayana, lists instruments such as the pakhāvaj, tabla, grātāl, bherī, and various stringed instruments, demonstrating the sophistication and diversity of musical culture in the northeast.
Courtly patronage encouraged interaction between different musical lineages. During the Khalji period in the early fourteenth century, traditions now associated with Hindustani and Carnatic music are recorded as participating in concerts and contests, indicating the early emergence of distinct stylistic idioms.

Modern and contemporary influences

The twentieth century brought a new wave of global interaction. From the 1960s, Indian classical instruments—especially the sitar and tabla—found a place in Western jazz and rock through collaborations with artists such as John Coltrane and members of The Beatles. Fusion genres proliferated during the late twentieth century, with the ‘Asian Underground’ movement in Britain blending Indian musical elements with electronic, pop, and club styles. In the twenty-first century, Indian film music (filmi) and bhangra have been sampled widely in global hip-hop and pop, reflecting the increasing international prominence of Indian musical idioms.

Classical music traditions

Indian classical music is broadly divided into two major traditions: Hindustani music of northern, eastern, and central India, and Carnatic music of southern India. Despite their differences in style, pedagogy, and repertoire, they share several theoretical foundations.
Both traditions are structured around śruti (microtones), svara (notes), rāga (melodic framework), and tāla (rhythmic cycle). The octave is divided conceptually into twenty-two śrutis, though only twelve are commonly used. Seven fundamental notes, the sapta-svara—Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni—form the basis of all melodic elaboration. These correspond approximately to the sol-fa syllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti. Sa and Pa remain fixed (achal svara), while the others admit variations (komal or tīvra), producing the numerous scale forms permitted within classical performance.
In both traditions, a rāga is more than a scale; it is a melodic personality with prescribed ascending and descending movements, emphasised notes, characteristic phrases, and emotional associations. Improvisation is central, structured through established developmental forms. Rhythmic accompaniment follows cyclic patterns measured by beats and subdivisions, expressed in diverse tālas that range from slow and expansive to rapid and intricate.

Folk, devotional, and regional music

Beyond the classical sphere, India’s regional folk traditions offer a wealth of musical diversity shaped by linguistic and cultural variety. Folk genres include Baul songs of Bengal, Lavani of Maharashtra, Bihu music of Assam, Rajasthani folk ballads, and various tribal musical practices using indigenous instruments. Devotional music, including bhajan, kirtan, qawwali, and bhakti compositions, remains integral to community worship and religious storytelling across the subcontinent.

Music and dance traditions

The relationship between music and dance in India is longstanding, with classical dances drawing extensively on musical structures. The Sangeet Natak Akademi recognises Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Kathakali, Sattriya, Manipuri, and Mohiniyattam as classical forms, with Chhau also included by the Ministry of Culture. Each dance tradition employs specific rhythmic patterns, melodic frameworks, and expressive vocabularies rooted in classical musical theory.

Carnatic and Hindustani systems

Carnatic music, predominantly practised in the southern states, traces its theoretical lineage to ancient Tamil and Sanskrit sources but developed its contemporary form in the medieval and early modern periods. It is characterised by a rich body of composed forms, especially the kṛti, and places emphasis on precise ornamentation and structured improvisation within defined rāgas.
Hindustani music, shaped by centuries of interaction between indigenous traditions and Persian-Central Asian influences, features genres such as khayal, dhrupad, and thumri. It privileges improvisation and expansive ālāp sections that gradually reveal the contours of a rāga. Instruments such as the sitar, sarod, sarangi, and tabla have become iconic within this system.

Instrumentation and notation

India possesses one of the world’s richest instrument heritages, encompassing chordophones such as the vīṇā, sitar, sarod, and ektara; membranophones such as the tabla, pakhāvaj, and mridangam; aerophones including the śahnāī and bānsurī; and numerous idiophones from cymbals to metal clappers. Historical evidence suggests that Indian systems of musical notation are among the oldest, evolving from schematic Vedic markings to sophisticated scripts used in classical repertoire. Notation today serves primarily as a mnemonic aid, as live interpretation and improvisation remain essential to performance.
Indian music, rooted in profound antiquity, continues to evolve as it interacts with global cultures while maintaining its distinct theoretical frameworks and expressive depth. It stands as a testament to the subcontinent’s enduring creativity and its capacity to integrate diverse influences into a continuing musical tradition.