music in ancient India

Musical instruments, such as the seven-holed flute and various types of stringed instruments such as ravanahatha,{{Cite book|title=The Music and Musical Instruments of North Eastern India|last=Barthakur|first=Dilip Ranjan|year=2003|isbn=8170998816|pages=24|publisher=Mittal Publications }} cymbals have been recovered from Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites. Evidence suggests use of drum or dhol in the Indus Valley Civilization.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/music/music-to-the-years-musical-instruments-from-the-indus-valley-civilisation/story-WuViIqOST8WMNCSkkayuuN.html|title=Music to the years: Musical instruments from the Indus Valley Civilisation|date=2016-08-14|website=hindustantimes|language=en|access-date=2019-04-17}} There have not been a lot of depictions of musical instruments from IVC, but contemporary BMAC civilization which traded with it has archaeological depictions of lyre and many cylinderical drums were also discovered from Indus Valley.{{Cite web |title=Source for drums |url=https://iwp.uiowa.edu/silkroutes/city/kolkata/text/indian-drums-history-discovery-and-tradition}} A kind of harp is also depicted in the Chalcolithic cave drawings of India along with Gong.{{Cite web|url=https://www.harappa.com/sites/default/files/pdf/WHEELS%20in%20Indian%20Rock%20Art%20Erwin%20Neumayer.pdf|title=Chariots in the Chalcolithic Rock Art of Indian|last=Erwin|first=Neumayer}} There is also evidence of dancing figurines from Indus valley civilization suggesting an established musical tradition. A kind of lithophone has also been discovered from Orissa around 1000 BCE.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOlNv8MAXIEC&dq=indus+valley+civilization+music&pg=PA319|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South Asia : the Indian subcontinent|last1=Nettl|first1=Bruno|last2=Arnold|first2=Alison|last3=Stone|first3=Ruth M.|last4=Porter|first4=James|last5=Rice|first5=Timothy|last6=Olsen|first6=Dale Alan|last7=Miller|first7=Terry E.|last8=Kaeppler|first8=Adrienne Lois|last9=Sheehy|first9=Daniel Edward|date=1998|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780824049461|language=en}}

The Samaveda, one of the ancient core Hindu scriptures known as the Vedas, consists of a collection (samhita) of hymns, portions of hymns and detached verses, all but 75 of which are taken from the Rigveda. They were intended to be sung using melodies called Samagana whose musical forms are indicated. These hymns were sung by Udgatar priests at sacrifices in which the juice of the Soma plant, clarified and mixed with milk and other ingredients, were offered in libation to various deities. This memorization by Hindu priests of the sacred Vedas included up to eleven musical forms of recitation that could be used on the same text.

{{Main|Natya Shastra}}

The Nātya Shastra is an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, embracing Indian theatre, early Indian classical dance and Indian classical music. It was written between 200 BC and 200 AD, during the classical period of Indian history. This text, which contains 6000 shlokas, is attributed to a muni whose name was Bharata Muni.

The Nātya Shastra is based upon a much older text called the Nātya Veda, which contained 36,000 shlokas.{{cite book |last = Ghosh |first = Manomohan |title = Natyasastra |year = 2002 |page = 2 |publisher = Chowkhamba sanskrit series office |isbn =81-7080-076-5}} No copies of the Nātya Veda have survived. Some scholars believe that it may have been written by various authors over a period of time.The most authoritative commentary on the Nātya Shastra is Abhinavabharati by Abhinava Gupta.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

• Origins and history of Carnatic music
• Ancient Tamil music

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-natyashastra/d/doc210229.html The Dhruvā Songs], Chapter XXXII of the Nāṭyaśāstra

{{Ancient music}}

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