Classical Music in Mughal India

Classical Music in Mughal India: Introduction

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• Music was one of the most fertile grounds of Hindu-Muslim cultural cooperation in medieval India, and Classical Music in Mughal India represents the high point of this shared tradition.
• Indian music had already established itself in the court circles of the Sultanate by the fourteenth century, with even an orthodox ruler like Firuz Tughlaq extending patronage to it.
• Under the Mughals, this syncretic tradition matured further, drawing on Hindu devotional music, Persian court aesthetics, and regional provincial traditions, and producing towering figures such as Tansen.
• This article traces the development of classical music under successive Mughal rulers, its parallel evolution in South India, and its systematisation into the modern Hindustani School of Music.

Background: Music Under the Sultanate and Provincial Kingdoms

• The development of music in North India was largely inspired and sustained by the Bhakti movement.
  • Many writings of the Bhakti saints were set to different ragas and surs.
  • The compositions of 16th and 17th century saint-poets were invariably set to music.
  • In Vrindavan, Swami Haridas promoted music extensively; Akbar is said to have gone incognito to hear his music, and Haridas is also considered the teacher of the famous Tansen of Akbar’s court.
• Centres of musical study and practice were mainly located in the regional (provincial) kingdoms, whose rulers were great patrons of music during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
  • Raja Man Singh of Gwalior (1486–1517) was himself a skilled musician and patron of musicians.
    • He is credited with creating many new melodies, collected in a work titled Man Kautuhal.
    • He played a distinguished role in the growth and perfection of Dhrupad, a variant style of North Indian classical music.
  • Patronage of music was thus extended at courts, temples, and Sufi gatherings alike.
  • Among the rulers of Delhi, Adali, son of Islam Shah Sur, was a great patron of music and an accomplished player of the pakhawaj.

Music Under Akbar

• Like Babur, Akbar too was deeply fond of music.
• The Ain-i-Akbari, written by Abu’l-Fazl, records that there were 36 musicians of high grade in Akbar’s court, including two bin players native to Gwalior — Shihab Khan and Purbin Khan.
• Akbar as a musician:
  • He was himself a learned musician, having studied Hindu vocalisation under Lal Kalawant, who taught him “every breathing and sound that appertains to the Hindi language.”
  • Abu’l-Fazl notes that Akbar had been fond of music from his early years, observing: “His Majesty has such a knowledge of the science of music as trained musicians do not possess; and he is likewise an excellent hand in performing especially on the nagara.”
  • It was owing to this personal interest that Akbar took Tansen into his own service, drawing him away from Raja Man Singh.
• Other court musicians:
  • Baba Ram Das, another famous musician, appears to have been attached to Bairam Khan.
  • Sur Das, son of the celebrated singer Ram Das and one of the greatest Hindi poets of all time, was also a musician at Akbar’s court.
• Akbar’s personal interest and patronage led to significant progress in both instrumental and vocal music; at his court, Hindu and Muslim musical traditions mingled and became one.
  • In the fort at Fatehpur Sikri, a pond with a small island at its centre was built, where musical performances were staged.

Tansen

• Mian Tansen (born 1493 as Ramtanu Pandey — died 1586) was a prominent Hindustani classical music composer, musician, and vocalist, celebrated for a vast body of compositions.
  • He was also an accomplished instrumentalist, credited with popularising and refining the plucked rabab (of Central Asian origin).
• Training and early recognition:
  • He was disciple, for a time, of Swami Haridas, the legendary composer of Vrindavan, and was also part of the illustrious Gwalior court of Raja Man Singh Tomar (1486–1516), where he specialised in the Dhrupad style.
  • From Haridas, Tansen absorbed not only his love for dhrupad but also an interest in compositions in the local language — reflecting the broader Bhakti-era shift from Sanskrit to Brajbhasha and Hindi.
  • His talent was recognised early, and it was the ruler of Gwalior who conferred on him the honorific title “Tansen.”
• At Akbar’s court:
  • He was counted among the Navaratnas (nine jewels) of Emperor Akbar’s court, who further honoured him with the title Mian (“learned man”).
  • Tansen became the leading singer at Akbar’s court, composing numerous songs in Hindi and creating new ragas, many of which are still sung today.
  • His singing style, drawn from Gwalior, was the stately Dhrupad style.
  • The presence of musicians like Tansen at court has also been linked to the theoretical function of making imperial power audibly felt among the population — a mechanism connected to the practice of Naubat, or ritual court performance.
  • The fort at Fatehpur Sikri is closely associated with Tansen’s tenure; the pond built near the emperor’s chambers, with its small central island used for musical performances, is today known as Anup Talao.
• Contribution to raga tradition:
  • Tansen is credited with the invention of Raga Deepak.
  • He introduced several famous ragas that are now prefaced with “Mian ki/Miyan ki,” including Mian ki Malhar, Mian ki Todi, Mian ki Mand, and Mian ka Sarang, along with Darbari; several of these remain mainstays of the Hindustani tradition.
  • He is also credited as the creator of major ragas such as Darbari Kanada, Darbari Todi, and Rageshwari.
  • He authored Sangeeta Sara and Rajmala, both of which remain important documents on Indian music.
• Legacy:
  • In terms of musical stature and influence, Tansen is often compared to the prolific Sufi composer Amir Khusro (1253–1325) and to Bhakti tradition composers such as Swami Haridas.
  • His influence was central to shaping the Hindustani classical ethos, and almost all gharanas of Hindustani classical music claim some connection to the Tansen lineage, though some trace their origins further back to Amir Khusro.
  • The formalisation of the Dhrupad style owes much to the practice of composers like Tansen and Haridas, as well as contemporaries such as Baiju Bawra.
  • After Tansen, elements of the rabab were fused with the traditional Indian veena, giving rise to the sarod — a fretless instrument valued for its closeness to the vocal style.
  • The tradition of qawwali is sometimes claimed to trace its lineage to Mian Tansen, though this claim is considered doubtful by many scholars.
  • Tansen was buried in the mausoleum complex of his Sufi master, Shaikh Muhammad Ghaus, in Gwalior. According to legend, his grieving son Bilas Khan composed the raga Bilaskhani Todi — a blend of the ragas Asavari and Todi — in his memory.
• Ali Khan Karori is notable as one of the rare musicians, alongside the illustrious Tansen, to have been the subject of an individual portrait.

Music Under Shah Jahan

• Shah Jahan was also a patron of music and himself a singer.
• There is a recorded tradition that his voice was so melodious that it moved Sufi saints to tears of emotion.

Music Under Aurangzeb

• Aurangzeb himself was an accomplished player of the veena and continued to patronise music during the first ten years of his reign.
• However, growing religious puritanism, combined with a misplaced sense of economy, led him to banish singers from his court.
  • Instrumental music, notably, continued to be practised.
• Despite Aurangzeb’s well-known jibe to protesting musicians — to “bury music deep” — his reign paradoxically saw the production of a large number of books on music.
  • The most famous of these was the Tuhfat-ul-Hind, written for Aurangzeb’s grandson, Jahandar Shah.
• Even as court patronage waned, members of the royal family — including ladies of the haram — and many nobles continued to patronise music privately.

Music in the 18th Century

• In the 18th century, music in the North Indian style received strong encouragement at the court of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah.
  • His most celebrated singers were Sadarang and Adarang — masters of Dhrupad who also trained many pupils in the Khayal style, considered more lyrical in theme and erotic in approach, which greatly boosted its popularity.
  • Muhammad Shah himself composed Khayals under the pen-name “Rangila Piya.”
  • Many courtesans also achieved fame for their music and dance during this period.
• New musical forms that emerged in this century included Tarana, Dadra, and Ghazal.
  • The tabla and sitar also became popular during this period.
• Certain folk musical forms were incorporated into courtly music, most notably:
  • Thumri, which employed folk scales.
  • Tappa, developed from the songs of the camel drivers of Punjab.
• Later Mughal rulers continued to patronise music, though patronage gradually declined alongside Mughal political power.
  • Nevertheless, the composite culture fostered in music during the Mughal period remains visible today in Indian classical music, particularly in the Hindustani tradition.

Music in the 19th Century

• In the early 19th century, British colonisers and affluent Anglo-Indians developed the practice of commissioning local painters to produce portraits in a Western style, eventually giving rise to the movement known as the “Company School.”
  • Among the favoured subjects were musicians and courtesans of the period.
  • The influential Anglo-Indian Colonel James Skinner of Delhi kept musicians and dancers in his household.
    • He commissioned a renowned artist to create an album featuring the portrait of a blind binkar, Miyan Himmat Khan Kalawant.
    • The title “Kalawant” — reserved exclusively for dhrupad singers and bin players — indicates that he belonged to the highest echelon of professional musicians.
• North-South contrast in codification: While the texts of music in the South enforced a stricter science, the relative absence of texts in the North permitted greater liberty, resulting in several experiments in mixing ragas.
  • This loose codification of North Indian music remains a feature of the tradition to the present day.

Music in South India

• In the South, a system of parent and derivative modes — the Janaka and Janya ragas — had developed by around the middle of the 16th century.
• The earliest treatise dealing with this system, Swaramela Kalanidhi, was written by Ramamatya of Kondavidu (Andhra Pradesh) in 1550.
  • It describes 20 Janaka ragas and 64 Janya ragas.
• Later, in 1609, Somanatha wrote Ragavibodha, incorporating certain concepts from the North Indian style.
• By the middle of the 17th century, Venkatamakhin composed the famous treatise Caturdandi-prakasika at Thanjavur (c. 1650).
  • The system laid out in this text came to form the bedrock of the Carnatic system of music.

The Hindustani School of Music

Historical Development

• Hindustani classical music is the North Indian style of Indian classical music, prevalent across North India and Eastern Pakistan; it is also referred to as North Indian classical music or Shastriya Sangit.
• The tradition originated in Vedic ritual chants and has been evolving in North India since around the 12th century CE.
  • It is customary for performers of distinguished achievement to be awarded titles of respect — Hindus as “Pandit” and Muslims as “Ustad.”
  • A notable feature dating back to Sufi times is the tradition of religious neutrality: Muslim ustads may sing compositions in praise of Hindu deities, and vice versa.
• Divergence from Carnatic music: Around the 12th century, Hindustani classical music diverged from what would later be identified as Carnatic classical music, though both systems share the central concept of a melodic mode (raga) sung to a rhythmic cycle (tala).
  • The tradition traces back to the Samaveda (sama meaning “song”), which lays down norms for the chanting of shrutis or hymns, such as those of the Rig Veda.
  • These principles were further refined in the musical treatises Natya Shastra, by Bharata (2nd–3rd century CE), and the Dattilam (3rd–4th century CE).
• Medieval fusion with Persian traditions:
  • In medieval times, the melodic systems of Hindustani music fused with ideas from Persian music, particularly through Sufi composers such as Amir Khusro, and later within the Mughal courts.
  • Tansen — sometimes called the “father of modern Hindustani classical music” — composed in Persian, Turkish, Arabic, as well as Brajbhasha, and is credited with systematising many aspects of Hindustani music, including the introduction of ragas such as Yaman Kalyan, Zeelaf, and Sarpada.
    • He is also credited with creating the qawwali genre, which fuses Persian melody and rhythm onto a Dhrupad-like structure.
    • A number of instruments, including the sitar and tabla, are also traditionally associated with his era.
  • At the royal house of Gwalior, Raja Man Singh Tomar (1486–1516) participated actively in the broader shift from Sanskrit to the local idiom (Hindi) as the language of classical song.
    • He personally composed several volumes on religious and secular themes, and compiled the Mankutuhal (“Book of Curiosity”), which outlined the major musical forms prevalent at the time.
    • The Dhrupad form saw considerable development at his court and remained a defining strength of the Gwalior gharana for centuries thereafter.
• Bhakti-tradition composers:
  • Much of the musical innovation of this period merged with the Hindu devotional tradition, being composed in the popular vernacular language (rather than Sanskrit) by figures such as Kabir and Nanak.
  • This formed part of a wider Bhakti tradition, closely linked to the Vaishnavite movement, which remained influential across several centuries; notable figures include Jayadeva (11th century), Vidyapati (fl. 1375 CE), Chandidas (14th–15th century), and Meerabai (1555–1603 CE).
• Post-Mughal patronage and the rise of gharanas:
  • After the dissolution of the Mughal empire, patronage of music continued at smaller princely courts such as Lucknow, Patiala, and Banaras, giving rise to the diversity of regional performing styles known as gharanas.
  • Many musician families received substantial land grants, ensuring self-sufficiency for at least a few generations — as with the Sham Chaurasia gharana.
  • Meanwhile, the Bhakti and Sufi traditions continued to develop and interact with the various emerging gharanas.

Similarities and Differences Between Hindustani and Carnatic Music

• Carnatic music and Hindustani music represent two distinct traditions of Indian classical music, differing in their nature, style, and technique of singing.
  • Carnatic music is said to have originated in South India, while Hindustani music developed across several parts of northern and western India at different points in time.
• Shared characteristics:
  • Both styles are monophonic, follow a melodic line, and employ a drone (tanpura) using one or two notes set against the melody.
  • Both use definite scales to define a raga, though Carnatic music employs shrutis (semitones) to construct ragas, resulting in a considerably larger number of ragas than in the Hindustani style.
• Differences in nomenclature and classification:
  • Raga names differ between the two systems, though some ragas share the same scale under different names — for example, Hindolam and Malkauns, or Shankarabharanam and Bilawal.
  • A third category — including ragas like Hamsadhwani, Charukeshi, and Kalavati — share both name and scale across the two systems, though rendered in distinctively different Carnatic and Hindustani styles.
  • Unlike Hindustani music, Carnatic music does not follow the concept of Time (Samay); instead of Thaats, it follows the Melakarta system.
• Performance and instrumentation:
  • Carnatic music is performed in a single, unified style, whereas Hindustani music encompasses multiple performance styles or schools, each known as a gharana.
  • Both traditions use instruments such as violin and flute, but Hindustani music relies extensively on the tabla, sarangi, santoor, sitar, and clarionet, while Carnatic music relies on the veena, mridangam, gottuvadyam, mandolin, violin, flute, and jalatarangam, among others.
  • Ragam, talam, and pallavi form the core of raga exposition in Carnatic music, whereas in Hindustani music, greatest importance is given to raga elaboration itself. Leading Indian music festivals today often present a fine blend of both traditions.

Principles of Hindustani Music

• Rhythmic organisation is based on rhythmic patterns known as tala.
• Melodic foundations are known as ragas; each raga has its own scale, consisting of a minimum of five and a maximum of seven notes (swaras), with specific ascending (Aaroh) and descending (Avaroh) movements.
  • Ragas are also employed in semi-classical and light music.
• Classification: One common classification system groups ragas into “melodic modes” or “parent scales,” known as Thaats, under which most ragas can be organised based on the notes they employ.
  • Thaats may consist of up to seven scale degrees (swara); Hindustani musicians name these pitches through the Sargam system.
  • The fine intonational differences between instances of the same swara are termed shrutis — considered the smallest interval of pitch perceptible to the human ear.
• Performance structure:
  • Alap is a rhythmically free improvisation that establishes the character of the raga and brings out its distinguishing features.
    • The alap is followed, in vocal music, by a long, slow-tempo improvisation, or by the jod and jhala in instrumental music.
  • Bandish (or Gat) is a fixed melodic composition set within a specific raga, performed with rhythmic accompaniment from a tabla or pakhavaj.

Types of Compositions in Hindustani Classical Music

• The major vocal forms associated with Hindustani classical music are Dhrupad, Khyal, and Tarana.
• Other, lighter forms include Dhamar, Trivat, Chaiti, Kajari, Tappa, Tap-Khyal, Ashtapadis, Thumri, Dadra, Ghazal, and Bhajan — these are considered folk, semi-classical, or light classical styles, as they generally do not adhere to the rigorous rules of pure classical music.

Dhrupad

• Dhrupad is an old style of singing, traditionally performed by male singers, accompanied by the tambura and pakhawaj.
  • Its lyrics — some originally composed in Sanskrit centuries ago — are today more often sung in Brajbhasha, a medieval form of North and East Indian speech.
  • The rudra veena, an ancient string instrument, is used for instrumental renditions of dhrupad.
• Thematic content: Dhrupad music is primarily devotional, containing recitals in praise of particular deities; compositions typically begin with a relatively long and acyclic alap.
  • The great musician Tansen sang in the Dhrupad style.
  • A lighter form of dhrupad, called Dhamar, is sung primarily during the festival of Holi.
• Decline and revival:
  • Dhrupad remained the main form of North Indian classical music until roughly two centuries ago, when it gradually gave way to the somewhat less austere Khyal, a more free-form style of singing.
  • Having lost its principal royal patrons among the Indian princely states, dhrupad risked near extinction during the first half of the twentieth century.
• Notable lineages:
  • Among the best-known Dhrupad vocalists are the members of the Dagar lineage; leading vocalists outside this lineage include the Mallik family of the Darbhanga tradition.
  • A section of Dhrupad singers of the Delhi Gharana, originally from Emperor Shah Jahan’s court, migrated to Bettiah under the patronage of the Bettiah Raj, giving rise to the Bettiah Gharana.
  • The Bishnupur Gharana, based in West Bengal, is a key school that has propagated this style of singing since Mughal times.

Khyal

• Khyal is a form of raga rendering, whose essential components are a fixed composition (Bandish) and the improvised expansion of its text within the framework of the raga.
  • Literally meaning “thought” or “imagination,” Khyal is a Hindustani vocal form adopted from medieval Persian music and based on Dhrupad; it is distinctive for its emphasis on improvisation and emotional expression.
  • Hindustani music, like Persian and Arabic music, is a modal system emphasising melody over harmony; a Khyal typically consists of a two- to eight-line lyric set to a melody.
• Thematic range: Khyals are popular for depicting the emotions between two lovers, situations of ethological significance in Hinduism and Islam, or other scenarios evoking intense feeling.
  • Compared to Dhrupad, Khyal offers a greater variety of embellishments and ornamentations; its romantic appeal has made it the most popular genre within Hindustani classical music.
  • The singer improvises freely, drawing inspiration from within the structure of the raga.
• Origins and popularisation:
  • While it is broadly accepted that Khyal was based on Dhrupad and shaped by Persian influence, many scholars attribute its creation to Amir Khusrau in the late 16th century.
  • The form was later popularised by Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah, through his court musicians.
  • The compositions of the court musician Sadarang, at Muhammad Shah’s court, bear the closest affinity to the modern Khyal.
  • Other well-known composers of this period included Sadarang, Adarang, and Manrang.

Differences Between Dhrupad and Khyal

• Dhrupad has a specific four-part composition, sung in different styles, and is accompanied by the Mridang or Pakhawaj — a one-piece drum — unlike the two-piece tabla used in Khyal.
• The core difference lies in structural freedom: Dhrupad is rigidly bound by its fixed composition and tala, with all improvisation confined within that framework, whereas Khyal allows the performer to depart freely from the rhythmic beat and return only at the start of each tala cycle.
• Khyal also employs two essential idioms absent in Dhrupad:
  • Sargam — singing the actual notes (sa, re, ga…) rather than words.
  • Taan — rapid, sequential movement through different notes, typically using the vowel “Aa.”

Tarana

• Taranas are medium- to fast-paced compositions conveying a mood of elation, usually performed towards the end of a concert.
• They consist of a few lines of poetry set to soft syllables or bols, arranged to a tune.
• The tillana of Carnatic music is based on the tarana, though the former is primarily associated with dance.

Tappa

• Tappa is a form of Indian semi-classical vocal music, distinguished by its rolling pace built on fast, subtle, and intricate construction.
• It originated in the folk songs of the camel riders of Punjab and was developed into a classical form by Shori Mian, a court singer for Asaf-ud-Dowlah, the Nawab of Awadh.

Thumri

• Thumri is another form of raga rendering, but as a popular light-classical form, it is limited to specific ragas whose defining emotions are lyricism and eroticism — such as Bhairavi, Gara, and Pilu.
  • Effective word-play typically characterises a Thumri.
• Regional association: Chiefly associated with the folk traditions of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, Thumri is composed in dialects of Hindi.
  • It is a semi-classical vocal form, said to have originated in Uttar Pradesh under the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (r. 1847–1856).
  • There are three types of Thumri: Poorab Ang, Lucknavi, and Punjabi Thumri.
  • Its lyrics are typically composed in a proto-Hindi language called Brij Bhasha and are usually romantic in theme.

Ghazal

• Ghazal is originally a Persian form of poetry. In the Indian subcontinent, it became the most common poetic form in the Urdu language, popularised among the North Indian literary elite by classical poets such as Mir Taqi Mir, Ghalib, Daagh, Zauq, and Sauda.
• Vocal music set to this poetic mode enjoys popularity, with multiple regional variations, across Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Turkey, India, and Pakistan.
• The Ghazal exists today in several forms, including semi-classical, folk, and pop variations.

Conclusion

• Classical Music in Mughal India exemplifies the deep syncretic character of medieval Indian culture, blending Hindu devotional traditions, Persian court aesthetics, and regional provincial styles into a shared musical language.
• From the provincial patronage of Raja Man Singh of Gwalior and the towering genius of Tansen under Akbar, through the continued, if uneven, patronage of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, to the flowering of Khyal under Muhammad Shah in the 18th century, the Mughal court remained a vital centre of musical innovation for over two centuries.
• This tradition matured into the modern Hindustani School of Music, distinguished from its southern counterpart, Carnatic music, yet sharing with it the foundational concepts of raga and tala — together forming the twin pillars of India’s classical musical heritage, and a rich, recurring theme for UPSC History Optional aspirants.