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hymns of Hindu temples. Thus, as in Western music, the roots of Indian classical music
are religious. It can be a spiritual discipline on the path to self-realization. Indian
traditional teachings say that sound is God - Nada Brahma. According to ancient
scriptures there are two types of sound - "struck" and "unstruck". The "struck sound" is
called so because it is always caused by physical impact when a vibration of air is
produced. It is any sound that we hear in nature or man-made sounds, musical and
non-musical. The "unstruck sound" is not produced by any physical impact. It is the
vibration
heard from within by self-realized enlightened persons after many years of meditation and spiritual
discipline. Indian classical music, though belonging to the "struck" kind of sound, actually represents the
"unstruck" eternal vibration of the Universe thus awakening the hearts. During its long historical path,
from the ancient Hindu temples, through the court-yards of the maharajahs and emperors, to the present
modern concert halls around the World, Indian music retained its original purity. Indian classical music is
principally based on spontaneous improvising on melody and rhythm. The very heart of Indian melody is
the raga: the melodic form upon which the musician improvises. There is a saying in Sanskrit -
"Ranjayathi iti Ragah" - which means, "that which colours the mind is a raga."
presentation of the specific emotion or mood characteristic of each raga. Thus
through rich melodies every human emotion, every subtle feeling in man and
and its own mood or feeling. The ragas are discovered by great masters, often by saint-musicians and
passed down from guru to student while keeping their original purity. Some ragas are more than 1000
years old and were mentioned in ancient literature. Today there are approximately 200 known ragas
among them about 70 or 80 are commonly performed. In addition to being associated with a particular
mood, each raga is also closely connected to a particular time of the day or a season of the year. There
are morning, noon, evening or night ragas as well as ragas of rainy season, autumn or spring. As much
as 90 percent of Indian music may be improvised, which makes every performance unique even if the
same raga is played again.
performance settings and the skills of the musician. The second most important aspect of Indian
classical music is a rhythmic cycle know as tala. The melody of a raga can be set to the rhythm of a
particular tala. Tala is a fixed amount of beats moving in the cycle in which the last beat is joined again
to the first, like a clock. This cycle can be anywhere between 5 to 108 beats long. The most common
talas are of 16, 7, 10, 8, 6, or 12 beats. There is unique intricacy and rhythmic sophistication in Indian
music. The first beat of the tala is the most important one and must be emphasised while playing. That is
why mental counting of the beats of the tala is essential. Similarly to ragas, talas are also created by
great masters and become a part of musical tradition which must be followed. Every tala has a name
and its specific rhythmic structure. While the artist has complete freedom to improvise, he may do so
only as long as he does not leave the format of the raga and the tala. Since Indian music is religious in
origin, one finds the spiritual quality in most of the musician's performances. For me, music is the path of
unlimited pleasure, divine in nature, leading towards the eternity.
of Oneness. This concept of Oneness is the essential of Indian musical philosophy. When I play sitar I
become one with the melody and the rhythm. I just can not explain the exquisite pleasure I get when I
merge with this Oneness. It is like a wonderful mixture of all emotions: happiness, sorrow, love, humor,
sadness, joy - all flow together through my heart and I feel like laughing and crying at the same moment.
At the concert, receptive and concentrated listeners would feel the same, no matter which country or
culture they belong to. Being an international language, Indian classical music brings together people of
different nations and backgrounds and helps them to understand each other. It is only possible to
introduce an apparently alien art form successfully into the heart of other culture when this art has a
universal appeal. Indian classical music purifies the mind, teaches about love and humanity and helps us
to see the Truth.
