It is not very easy to find out the origin of Indian Classical music. As all other arts in India , this is also supposed to have a divine origin.
There are reference in Vedam to the music. That is we can say the Indian music culture has been used from 4000 B.C. There are 4 vedams in India and all are passed down in a oral mode. Vedams are having thousands of hymns and have its on musical way of reciting usually. In Samaveda , there are clear reference to music as symbolic of Nada Brahmam. In Yajur veda says Veena can accompany the reciting of Veda. Around 1000 B.C , it is said that , there was an organised Tetrachord Concept . That is , 4 note forms was used in reciting Vedams. Sama Vedam laid foundation to Karnataka Sangeetham. In many Ancient books , there are clear description of the ragam, swaram and thalam.
When Persian and Islamic influences came to Indian music in Northern Part of India , the Indian music culture has subdivided in to two. Like Hindusthani in North and Karnataka Sangeetham in South. It was around the 12 century , the musical culture started to diverge into two different mode. But when closely watching, we can see many similarity in both. By 17th century there was clear differences occurred in
both. Karnataka Sangeetham did not changed much.
Karnataka sangeetham flourished in Thanjavore around 15th century, when Vijaynagaram Empire was in its glorified age. In the 15th Century Shri Purandara Dasaru created a method for teaching Karnatic music. So he is called Father of Karnataka Saneetham and he created a Thousands of songs.
In the 17th century, one of the greatest theorists of Karnataka Sangeetham , Shri Venkat Mukhi Swami , created and introduced Melakartha system to the Karnataka Sangeetham.
Karnataka Sangeetham- The music of South India
