Historical Development of Indian Music: A Critical Study c2.3

c2.3

We are fully aware of the golden proverb: ‘Rome was not built in a day’, but, in truth, not only Rome, but all the cities and countries, nay, all things in this world of phenomena, have also grown, built and shaped through a gradual process, and nothing is ever made or created accidentally or by chance. Something develops means it moves gradually forward, one step at a time, just as a man walks step by step. Indian Music has also developed through the same process. It passed through different strata of evolution, in different periods, primitive, prehistoric, Vedic, classical, mediaeval, and modern. It will move onward again, and will be modified in the near and distant future. The music of the most ancient or primitive period supplied materials for the development of the systematic and scientific music of the Vedic days. The Vedic music, *sāmagāna* again helped the onward progress of the *gāndharva* type of music, which in its turn, was again replaced by the formalised regional or *deśi* but classical music, with new nomenclatures and forms. So music undergoes changes through all ages, with additions, alterations, modifications, reconstructions, adjustments and readjustments, rectifications, and so on. We should maintain, therefore, a liberal and broad vision in the field of Indian music. The possibility of new orientation in forms and manifestation of this music should neither be discouraged nor overlooked or rejected, but we should draw inspiration from the glorious heritage of the past and the prestine ideal of Indian music.