Hari OM All,
This week we started our class with prayers. We then discussed two topics - Dances of India and Music of India.
The following topics were covered in the Dances of India:
- Indian dance is considered the fifth Veda. Sage Bharatha wrote the Natya Shastra which was propagated by Sage Narada. He took kavya from the Rigveda, sangíta from Samaveda, abhinaya from Yajurveda, and rasa from Atharvaveda to compose the Natya Shastra.
- Dance forms are structured around nine rasas or emotions - happiness, anger, disgust, fear, sorrow, courage, compassion, wonder and serenity.
- The most famous classical dance forms are Kathak of Uttar Pradesh, Odissi of Orissa, Kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, Manipuri of Manipur, Bharatanatyam of Tamil Nadu, Kathakali and Mohiniattam of Kerala.
- The popular folk dances are Hikkat from Kashmir, Bihu from Assam, Bhangra from Punjab, Garba from Gujarat, Kolattam from Tamilnadu/Kerala and Karakattam from Tamilnadu.
The following were covered in the Music of India:
- Indian music is called Sangita and includes singing, playing of instruments and dancing. Indian music is melodic in nature and unlike western music is not based on harmony.
- Indian music has two major aspects: RAGA and TALA. Raga is a melodic scheme that expresses emotions and mood. Each Raga is made of a specific set of notes in an octave (at least five) in an ascending and descending arrangement (scale).
- Tala is a cycle of beats that maintains the rhythm for the song. Unlike the rëgas (which are in the thousands), there are only a few structures of the talas.
- Classical music has two distinct styles: one is the North Indian which is known as the Hindustani style, and the other is the South Indian which is known as the Carnatic style.
- There are varied types of string, wind, and percussion instruments that are performed as accompaniments or solo in Indian music. Traditionally, some of them are unique to certain regions. For example, Ghatam, Vína, Nadaswaram, and Mridangam are typically South Indian, while Santura, Sitara, Shehnai, and Tabala are North Indian.
We concluded the class with Arati and Pledge.
Pranaams!
Krishna and Sachin