Historical Development of Indian Music: A Critical Study c3.2

c3.2

It is possible that during the 17th and 18th centuries, when large numbers of eminent Muslim musicians came to the fore, the study of the Shastras or the theory practically stopped, the reason being that the Shastras are in Sanskrit and the musicians did not known anything of that superb language. From that it was only one step to maintain that there is no practical utility in the study of the books. Some of them sincerely believed that this book knowledge is utterly useless.