God has given us music as a gift along with his main blessings as a true friend, it increases our happiness and reduces our pain. It pleases and reassures both the rich and the poor, men and women and molds and creeds without distinction. Our Indian saints like SURDAS, KABIR, NARSIMH MEHTA, MIRABAI, TUJARAM, to name just a few, have immortalized music by composing their prayer melodies that they will never forget. The sage NARADA has always been described as accompanied by his VEENA that helped him achieve communion with the supreme being. Music has also been associated with our gods and goddesses and also with the Hindu trinity, the creator, the presence, and the destroyer.
“BRAHMAND” the hum of the creator’s music, permeates the universe. The very mention of SHREE KRISHNA’s flute fills VAISHNAVAS’s heart like a break. God Shankar with his “DAMARU” has been enraged. “NATRAJ” the king of dancers. SARASWATI, the goddess of learning, is never depicted without her VEENA, the symbol of music. Great men of vision who have realized that the fundamental varieties of life have already proclaimed on many occasions that musical laws govern the whole world and living objects. Musicians are always gifted beings. They are born great with genius and style all over themselves. They don’t get great by mere practice. You cannot assign a particular age or a particular theory to the provenance of music. All theories point to the conclusion that music is a pre-existing language. Before man found the language to express his feelings, there must have been what are called the basic emotions of the human mind, the pain and joy of human euphoria and disappointment. The direct relationship of music is not with ideas but with emotions. Man is governed by hedonic selection laws.
Psychologically also each impression must be followed by expression. Without this mind you will find no rest. If restlessness formed on top of restlessness, every day and every minute the tension would become too great and eventually it would break; in other words, the man would go mad unless, of course, an outlet was found for his impressions. Therefore, there must have been some vehicle to convey the fundamental emotions of the mind. We could call this the embryo of music.
According to Dr. Burn in his “History of Music” he supported the fundamental emotions expressing that emotions are more or less common to all nationals and tribes.
For example, the sound of “Oh” is used to express surprise throughout the world, whether among the highly civilized or among the utterly barbarous. Music is the religion of every human being. Music cleanses the understanding, inspires it and leaves it in a realm that it would not reach if it were left alone. “There is music in all things if men had ears.” If we study the voices of animals in different states of mind, we will not fail to discover in them the seven main notes of our music. During sexual selection, the voices of animals have been found to evolve into music. Animals that do not possess any personal charm or magnetism have to rely entirely on the melody of their voice to attract the female. Although these animals are naturally endowed with a charming voice, they use all their skill and all their powers of enchantment to make the melody of their voice sweeter, more pleasant, more tempting mixed in a harmony like the screeching tones of the rainbow. . Every time they invent some new notes, some new track, some new trap, so much exuberance of notes and sounds. That they have ever been struck by the kind nature. Since the dawn of life, by gradual evolution, possibly on a sexual basis, human ingenuity has re-cultivated and reused them in vocal and instrumental music.
The genesis of Hindu music is presumed to date back to the Vedas. The Vedas are not only the first documents to shed light on the history of India, but also give insight into the development of Hindu music and culture. As such, there is no theory expounded in the Vedas, but the hymns, the rhythm in which they were sung, the tones in which they were sung, the tones in which they were recited are of great importance to the student of the subject, for What are these who gradually became the regular “SWARAS” of Hindu music.
The Aryans, the authors of the Vedas, were worshipers of nature. They praised the elements by singing Hymns, which later acquired the nomenclature of “Mantras.” These Mantras are a panegyric worship speech to various gods of the Hindu pantheon.
There are various Vedas, but the “SAMA Veda” is of utmost importance and value for the Hindu music student, as it comprises a series of HYMAS chanted by the sages in their “SAMGAN” or evening prayers.
The true VEDIC God RUDRA, who after the fusion of the VEDIC culture with the Dravidian took the name and form of Shiva, has not only played an important role in the development of music, but has contributed much to shaping the culture. Hindu, religion. The core of the Hindu mind, the firmament of Hindu culture, is “OM”, the most intimate nationality of India. Thus, Lord Shiva creates a halo around the origin of our music. He is the supposed creator of the triple art of his mystical dance, which symbolizes the rhythmic movement of the universe.
India is not a country but a continent divided into various communions. Each one, having their own language, custom, melodies with their own characteristics, since the nationality of an individual is fixed with this difference that the latter requires a well-trained ear to distinguish melodies, since melodies differ not only from one community to another. but also from one custom or social function to another. As the wedding tunes are not the same as the HOLI festival tunes. Over time, SHASTRAKARS collected and classified these melodies into RAGA and RAGINI. Thus, the SWARAS fixed in the days of yore have been handed down to us and this particular custom of using notes according to the difference of passion or Raga peculiar to Hindu music is technically called “RAGA & RAGINI”.
The ‘Rasa’ or passion is the realization or experience of emotion, it is a supernatural state of mind. Anything that can bring the mind to a state of ecstasy is ‘Rasa’. The greatest culmination of music lies in the moment it creates the spell of the mind and the generation of Rasa.
Music is the essence of the universe, the synthesis of the soul, the very breath of God. It is the “OM” of our religion, the food of the soul’s appetite. It cannot be hidden in any particular age, community or country. It was born and evolved with humanity. Music reveals not only the childhood story of the human race, but also the dawn and growth of civilization. It provides the missing link between the past and the present.
Death is music, birth is music and between Alpha and Omega is the table of life woven into the rhythmic ‘SHRUTIS’ and the melodious notes.
Before concluding, I wish to express that the basis of our Indian music is devotion and love. Perhaps there is no other meaning as perfect, as artistic as the conception of Birth and death-creation and destruction-evolution and revolution. This was perhaps the basis of our classical conception, which our ancestors tried to shape in the shape of the three cardinal deities of our religion, BRAHMA the creator, VISHNU the preserver, MAHADEVA the destroyer the complete sense of evolution and revolution.
