A Short Prehistory of Western Music, Chapter 3

India P Tagg: A Short Prehistory of Western Music 27
was another necessary accomplishment, particularly the playing of the lute (vina).’
(Thapar 1966:151)
During subsequent centuries, various parts of Northern India — the Punjab, the
Ganges basin, Bengal etc. — were invaded on numerous occasion: by Turks, Afghans,
Persians, and, most notably, by Arabs. The Islamic influence on the Indian
subcontinent has been particularly strong, several important centres of power being
established between the time of the first Arab incursion in 711 CE and of British
colonial domination in the mid eighteenth century. 55 With the Arab
occupations, new raga-s were introduced, partly by Hindu court musicians who had
been converted to Islam and who needed to compete with their Arab colleagues by
incorporating a range of maqamat 56 into their repertoire for composition and improvisation.
A whole host of musical treatises were written during the period of Islamic
rule. Some of these mention paramusical aspects of the raga, while others
categorise raga-s on a musical-structural basis. 57
Although the political, religious and musical life of Northern India may was profoundly
influenced by those thousand years of Arab presence, as well as by two
hundred years of British rule, the strict underlying class stratification of Indian society
has persisted, whether it be feudal or capitalist. Such stratification also underpins
differences of musical practice throughout the subcontinent.
There seem to be two important dividing lines in most writing about Indian music:
one between northern Indian (Hindustani) and southern Indian (Carnatic) traditions,
the other between ‘art’ (‘classical’) and ‘folk’ music. The latter distinction is
also referred to as that between the ‘Little’ traditions, in the sense of local and vernacular
music, and the ‘Great Tradition’, to which the raga music of both Hindi and
Carnatic areas belong. It is the ‘Great Tradition’ that we will deal with first.
Raga music
SangŸtaþ˜stra
To qualify as art music (i.e. ‘classical’ or belonging to the ‘Great Tradition’), Indian
performing art, be it from the North or South, must, as Powers (1995:72) points out,
satisfy two main criteria.
‘Firstly it must establish a claim to be governed by authoritative theoretical doctrine;
secondly, its practitioners must be able to authenticate a disciplined oral tradition of
performance extending back over several generations.’
The important concept here is þ˜stra, meaning an ‘authoritative exposition of doctrine
or the body of doctrine itself’. The relevant þ˜stra in this context is sangŸta-þ˜stra,
which applies to vocal and instrumental music. 58 For Indian musical practices to be
55. e.g. the Abbasid dynasty (750-1258), the sultanate of Delhi (1206-1526), the Mogul empire (1526-
1658).
56. See under section on Arabic music (not yet written).
57. For example, N˜rada’s SangŸtamakaranda describes paramusical connotations of various raga-s,
while R˜m˜m˜tya’s Svaramelakal˜nidhi (1550) classifies raga-s structurally. Other important works
are Soman˜tha’s R˜gavibodha (1609) and Ahobala’s SangŸtaparij˜ta (1700). For detailed explanation
of the raga concept, see p.31, ff.