India Culture, Business, Sports and Food. Get all the buzz in India now

Evolution of Indian Literature  The history of Indian literature may conveniently be divided into two main stages or phases, the old and the modern. The old is also capable of being sub-divided into ancient and medieval, and the lower limit of this old period has been put down roughly at 1000 A.D. Round about 1000 A.D., in different parts of North India and the Deccan, the Modern Indo-Aryan languages took shape. Languages like Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Maithili, Magahi and Bhojpuri, Kosali (Eastern Hindi), Brajbhasha and other connected dialects belonging to the Western Hindi speech; the Pahari or Himalayan dialects; and dialects of Rajasthan and Malwa with Gujarati, Marathi and Konkani; the speeches of Eastern Punjab, Western Punjab and Sindh; and Kashmiri, all these first carne into being about this time.                                   The scholarly and scientific literature of India continued to be written in Sanskrit even after the development t of the Prakrit or Middle Indo-Aryan dialects and the Bhasa or Modern Indo-Aryan speeches. The older literary tradition was t partly religious and partly secular, such as, we find in both Sanskrit and the Prakrits. The religious literature consisted of philosophical disquisitions and narrative poems describing the legends and stories of the ancient heroes as preserved in the great epics and the Puranas, and in the case of the Jainas, in the stories of religious edification on the lives of the Jaina saints. The atmosphere of Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism was carried over from Middle Indo- Aryan to New Indo-Aryan. On the secular side, the literature consisted of little lyrics of love and life, and the habit of composing long narrative poems on romantic legends, which was prevalent in Sanskrit also, received a new form in the New Indo-Aryan languages. Modern Indian literature thus started with inheritances from Prakrit and its later phase the Apabhransa, and from Sanskrit, in Northern India, and in South India, in the case of Dravidian languages, there was a profound influence of Sanskrit all through. Although certain types of literature appeared to have developed independently in the various Dravidian languages, particularly Tamil, the Sanskrit influence became predominant. Apart from a slender stream of secular literature, the inherited religious literature of the Modern Indian languages presents a common factor for all the Indian languages of the present day, The great Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata andthe Ramayana, the story of Krishna as in the Bhagavata Purana and [...]

Forms of Indian Music Musicians in India can invent numerous musical structures with a raga and tala. These structures can either be closed or open. Closed ones are called nibaddha. Open ones are called Anibaddha. Nibaddha being closed structures follow tala and has words, meaningful or meaningless and definite parts with preset beginning and end or in other words one can call it a "composition". Anibaddha on the contrary may not follow tala and may be devoid of words. Anibaddha Forms: Alapa: Alapa is the most important Anibaddha music. Whether a musician is adroit in his art or not is tested through his alapa. Alapa, the most elaborate and the most delicate presentation of raga, demands much patience and sensitivity in rendering. it is a free rendering. Alapa precedes a composition in the same raga, which follows. In Karnataka music, alapa always precedes the composition. In case of Hindustani music, it may or may not precede the composition.   Tans: Tans like alapa is anibaddha, as they are not pre-composed. In Hindustani music, particularly in instrumental music they are termed as paltas. If it is with libretto, they are bole tans. It may be without libretto. Neraval: In Karnataka music, the bole tan has its equivalent- the Neraval. The difference between the two being: a bole tan can be placed anywhere in a composition whereas Neraval is placed at a certain recognized section of the song. Sangati: It resembles with Neraval. Tyagaraja is the inventor of this technique. The Sangati is slight variation of a phrase of song which is preconceived. Neraval or the bole tan is extensive and is to an extent there and then raga elaboration. As for the ‘name’ goes it doesn’t exist in the north. Sargam: The Sargam is a word formed of syllables Sa-Re-Ga-Ma in Hindustani Music.   In Karnataka music, it is Kalpana Svara. It is also free rendering and practiced more often in Karnataka music. Only the note-signatures are used in the raga elaboration and not the meaningful words or nonsense syllables or merely vowels. Tanam: It is found in Karnataka music and is similar to jode. It is not as wider in its melodic range and movement as jode. Jode and Jhala: These are confined to instrumental music. The Jode is a rendetion, without tala, of the raga in a medium tempo. It always follows the alapa Jhala faster. Alapa, Jode and Tanam [...]