Historical Development of Indian Music: A Critical Study c8.30

c8.30

From this Vedic allusion we get a very important clue to music. The Gandharvas were the semi-divine people of the north-western province of India. Some are of opinion that they had a special system of music and their scale of music was known as the *gāndhāra-grāma*. It is said that they made a special and most important contribution to Indian music, and for this reason the ancient authors of music designated the art of the *laukika* music as ‘*gāndharvam*’ or ‘*gāndharva-vidyā*’, to commemorate the valuable gift of the semi-divine Gandharvas.