Essay: Important Treatises on Carnatic Music

Abstract

Tracing the origin of music is not an easy task. Great minds have delved deep into the past to take a glimpse of the primitive music, but failed to obtain any authentic facts. Indian music however traces its origin to 'Samaveda'. Geniuses have constantly worked on this field of knowledge trying to synthesize philosophy, psychology and aesthetics and blend it with music. The oral tradition had its drawback in the transmission of knowledge and caused confusion. Hence there was an urgent need for the script. Celebrated writers like Narada, Panini and Yagnyavalkya have developed music as an art through their writings. Even though part of the history of ancient music is legend, our scholars with their knowledge- hungry-souls have worked hard enough to come with major developments in the field. Naradiya Siksha, Paniniya Siksha and Yagnyavalkya Samhita were the only authentic source material for ancient music. While the 1st was lost and only references could be found in the later classics on music, the other two were not treatises on music but, yet landmarks in the evolution of music during past centuries could be spotted in these books.