Historical Development of Indian Music: A Critical Study c8.43

c8.43

In the beginning of the classical period, there evolved the new jāti type of music, which was mainly connected with the performance of drama, and so it was known as the stage-song or nātyagīti i.e., a type of melodic song applicable to drama. It is said that two great authors, Brahmā or Brahmābharata and Sadāśiva or Sadāśivabharata flourished between 600 and 500 B.C. and they wrote or compiled two new types of dramas, Brahmābharatam and Sadāśivabharatam, in which some chapters were devoted to music.³ Bharata of the second century A.D. follows them and collects most of the materials from their dramas, and so his Nātyaśāstra is known by the name saṃgraha-grantha or ‘collection’.