Music—India, Devotional | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

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Music history of India Summary

Music—India, Devotional

"Devotional music" is a term used most frequently for the religious music of Hinduism and any other religion of Asian origin. Christianity and Islam also have developed some indigenous traditions of spiritual music, but as Hinduism (or the Vedic religion, as it is sometimes called) has a vast ambit of ritualistic prayer, nearly all devotional music currently prevalent in India is nurtured under its impact.

In India, the intense personal relationship of the individual devotee to God has been a major philosophy of liberation for fifteen hundred years. In this system of belief, God may be imagined as a lover, mother, child, master, or friend, and devotion to God in any of these forms should be expressed as a song. Use of poetry, music, and dance has been considered one of the most natural methods of worship in sanctuaries, temples, and personal idolatory. The code of ethics called the Yajnavalkya Smriti (from approximately the third century BCE) states, "One who knows the secrets of the harp, of musical scales like jatis, their microtonal tones and of rhythms, walks along the path ofliberation." Censure and suspicion of music as an instigator of base desires and, hence, ungodly have hardly ever been the view of any sect of Indian origin.

Monks use cymbals and chant in prayer at a Buddhist temple in Swayambhunath, Nepal. (EARL & NAZIMA KOWALL/CORBIS)

The hymns of the Rig Veda (scholars date these either from the fifth or second millennium BCE) for the Vedic gods like Indra, Agni, Varuna, and Mitra are the earliest extant example of devotional music. These were fine poetry recited with to three tones. But the Samavedic tradition, which was called gana (song), expanded the number of notes used to seven, thereby utilizing a musical scale. It also is known that sometimes harps were employed for accompaniment. The nature of this devotion was more communal than individual.

In the post-Vedic phase, most evident from the third century BCE, hymns in classical Sanskrit and other vernaculars were composed for gods like Shiva, Vasudeva, Parvati, Brahma, and Kamadeva and sung in temples, theaters, and in social rituals. The great temple complexes that were built from the second century BCE to the sixteenth century CE maintained a big retinue of dancers and musicians who performed several times in a day before the deity. Often composerpoets also were employed to make new compositions for the musicians.

Even the nonidolatrous sects like Buddhism and Jainism, while avoiding the personal praise of Buddha or Mahavira as God, nevertheless developed a devotional music that consisted of intricate chants and mantras with which their caves and monasteries resounded. Buddhist chants such as "Buddham Sharanam Gacchami" were modeled after the three-tone Rig Vedic chants.

The great age of devotional music in India, however, began around the seventh century, with the socalled philosophy of personal and individual bhakti (devotion). This sect had two broad divisions: those who worshiped God as incarnation and those who contemplated on him as the formless source of creation, preservation, and destruction. For the former, the life deeds of incarnations like Krishna or Rama were a lila (divine play), to be sung for liberation. The saint poets of this sect—Jayadeva, Surdas, Tulsidas, Mira, Rasakhan, Kamban, Potanna, Tyagaraja, and many others—always set their poetry to music. Singing was the chief mode of worship whether done individually in isolation or in community of the faithful. For the latter, the formless God was to be contemplated by calling/singing his name. Music was the most desirable means of devotion during this phase of religious approach, which lasted for eight centuries. Traditional music of India bears the stamp of this great religious movement to this day.