Hindustani vs Carnatic
Just because the word music is not there, it looks like a comparison between Hindustani and people from Karnataka, isn’t it? The fact is, and music lovers all over the country know it, Hindustani and Carnatic are types of music that are not only different, they reflect the North South divide which is already apparent in all walks of life. However, for those who do not know, this could be a fascinating journey into a world of music. Let us find out the major differences between Hindustani and Carnatic music.
Indian classical music has a long history and westerners think of it as Hindustani music only which is not true. A different style of music has continued to evolve with Hindustani music in the South of India known as Carnatic music. Though both styles are similar in that one raga per composition is used and tala is also restricted to one, there are many differences that will be discussed here.
It is a common perception that Hindustani music has had a lot of influences from Persian music because of hundreds of years of Islamic rule in North India. But if one were to take into account a large Muslim population in south India, especially in Kerala, it appears that this is not a valid point to justify differences in the two styles of music that have become known as north and south India divide in the music world.
While both Hindustani and Carnatic styles of music are monophonic and make use of a tanpura to maintain the melody. The raga used in the composition is maintained using definite scales but in Carnatic music there are semitones (shrutis) to create a raga which is why we find a larger number of ragas in Carnatic music than Hindustani music. Not only ragas are different, there names are also different in the two styles of music. However, one can find some ragas with the same scale in both styles such as Hindolam comparable to Malkauns in Hindustani, and Shankarabharnam being same as raga Bilawal in Hindustani. Even if ragas are same, they can be rendered in totally contrasting styles in Hindustani or Carnatic music.
Another difference between the two styles of music lies in the fact that there is a bandish of time in Hindustani music which is not there in Carnatic music. Thaats, which are an important concept in Hindustani music is not there in Carnatic style where malkarta concept is used instead. Hindustani music does not give that much importance to the vocalist as is found in Carnatic music.
Carnatic music can be considered more rigid than Hindustani music as there is a prescribed style of singing. On the other hand, there is more than a single style of singing in Hindustani music known as gharanas in Hindustani music. Two of the most famous styles of singing are the Jaipur gharana and Gwalior gharana.
The source of Hindustani music is considered to be Sangita Ratnakara of Sarangdeva while Carnatic music has influences from various musical stalwarts like Purandaradasa, Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri.
If one takes a look at the musical instruments accompanying a vocalist in the two styles of music, there are some similarities as well as differences. While violin and flute are present in both, it is the use of tabla, sarangi, sitar, santoor, and clarionet that dominate Hindustani music whereas musical instruments that are commonly found in Carnatic music are veena, mridangam, mandolin, and jalatarangam.
|
Summary: • There is no doubt that there are some similarities in the two styles of music, there are differences that are a result of totally different evolution and influences of musical stalwarts as well as cultures (Persian in the case of Hindustani music) • Despite so many differences in the two styles of music, there have been many exponents of classical music that have successfully attempted fusion of Hindustani and Carnatic styles of music and have mesmerized music lovers at various international music festivals.
|
actually the untold truth is that hindustani music evolved from carnatic music as most of the ragas in hindustani music match with that of carnatic music
In this post, the author provides evidence supporting and disproving certain arguments pertaining to the differences between these two types of classical Indian music – Hindustani and Carnatic. Based on my minimal Indian classical music knowledge as a Carnatic Vocalist, I find that this piece addresses some important points, but also draws potentially erroneous claims about their origins / differences. The following comments that I make are my opinions only, just to note 🙂
It is definitely true that different composers wrote each type of classical music, and that certain ragas are translatable among the two classical forms. I also like how the author mentioned the stress on vocals in Carnatic music in contrast to Hindustani music. However, generalizations about one ragam and one talam per composition don’t necessarily take into account songs where there really isn’t a strict ragam at all, or when there are multiple ragas for one piece, or when a simple count beat (not a strict talam) is used.
The claims revolving around religious distribution in India accounts (and doesn’t account) for Hindustani / Carnatic origin aren’t very accurate, especially with the concluded linear relationship between Persian (ethnicity) and Muslim (religion). The perception of Persian musical influences is (at least to my understanding) exclusive from India’s muslim population, due to the differences in how these “influences” travel, language origin differences, and the methods of cultural expression in different regions of the country.
As far as the claim about monophonic texture goes, I feel it really depends on the song itself and the types of songs. For example, when looking at popular Hindustani ghazals, the solo vocals with taal (beat) would be considered monophony, but the addition of sitar and / or tabla (which are pitched drums) would result in homophony (vocal melody with rhythmic and / or melodic accompaniment) and / or possibly in heterophony (where the sitar plays a similar but slightly different melody as the vocalist). When looking at Carnatic Krithis, the alapana (which can be referred to as an acapella vocal solo with a common instrumental following) could be monophonic (if only a vocalist, otherwise heterophonic). The actual song, however, with the violin and the mridangam (yet again, a pitched drum) along with the tanpura would be more likely be homophony and heterophony (because of the rhythmic mridangam accompaniment and the follow the leader style violin accompaniment). In short, both Hindustani and Carnatic are not always monophonic in texture – it really depends what type of song and where in the song!
I think it might also be important to mention that going into both forms of music (whether as a vocalist or an instrumentalist) requires lots of training, where training for each form of indian classical music is very different. The timbre and pitches commonly heard in Carnatic music, for example, are very different that those heard in Hindustani music.
Again, though, this is just my opinion and my comments are not in any way completely correct / the only right way to set up this argument. Overall, this was still really well written and did a good job of setting the foundation for some ideas that bridge the difference between these two types of classical music.