गीत
Raga, tala and text in the voice, the model for Hindustani and Carnatic instruments
Indian classical vocal music (Sanskrit gita, Hindi geet) is singing built on raga and tala, in two traditions: Hindustani, with forms such as khayal, and Carnatic, with the kriti.
Sanskrit music theory starts with the Natya Shastra, a treatise on drama attributed to Bharata and dated to about 200 BCE to 200 CE. North and south began to drift apart in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the Sangita Ratnakara, written by Sarngadeva at the court of Devagiri in the early 13th century, is the last major treatise both traditions share. The split was clear by the 16th to 17th centuries. In the north, dhrupad peaked in the 16th century. Khayal (also spelt khyal) reached its classic form through Niyamat Khan Sadarang at Muhammad Shah's court, and since the 19th century it has been the most widely performed Hindustani vocal genre. Lucknow gave thumri its familiar form at Wajid Ali Shah's court. In the south, Nayaka and Maratha patrons at Thanjavur shaped Carnatic music from the 17th century. The Trinity of Carnatic music, Syama Sastri, Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar, were active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Most accounts credit Tyagaraja with perfecting the three-part kriti. The concert order most Carnatic singers follow today traces to Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar.
The tradition places the voice first. The Sangita Ratnakara treats sangita, the whole art of music, as song, instrumental music and dance, and expounds song first, reasoning that dance follows instruments and instruments follow the voice. Influence has also run the other way: Ludwig Pesch hears vina technique in several Carnatic ornaments. A Carnatic concert sets improvised forms beside its compositions, among them raga alapana, an unmetered exposition of the raga, and niraval, melodic variation on one line of text. A Hindustani singer opens with the alap, an unmetered unfolding of the raga before the drum enters. Notation records only the outline, so the music passes orally from teacher to student in the guru-shishya parampara, through close listening, imitation and long practice. In the north these lineages are called gharanas, or schools; Carnatic musicians speak of sampradaya, tradition, and bani, personal style. Carnatic students begin with graded exercises credited to Purandara Dasa.
Dive deeper into specific aspects of this discipline
कर्नाटक संगीत
Carnatic music, the classical tradition of South India, builds on raga and tala and centres on the voice and the kriti. Students begin with exercises in raga Mayamalavagowla.
Hindustani classical vocal music is the singing tradition of North Indian art music. Singers develop a raga through composition and improvisation in khayal and dhrupad.
Popular sub-disciplines within this tradition
A varnam is a Carnatic composition of words and solfa passages that sets out the phrases of one raga. Students learn it before concert pieces, and concerts often open with one.
Viruttam (virutham) is a Tamil devotional verse sung to a melody a Carnatic singer improvises in one or more ragas, with no tala, usually just before a song.
Tarana is a Hindustani classical vocal composition sung on syllables such as ta, na, dir and tom, set in a raga and tala. It often follows the khayal in a raga presentation.
Ragam Tanam Pallavi (RTP) is the main long improvised form of a Carnatic concert: an unmetered ragam, a pulsed tanam, then one composed line in tala that the performer develops.
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