his famous work Sangeeta Ratnakara. Some of the other important works on
Indian music were Brihaddesi (written in the 9th century AD) by Matanga,
which defined the word "Raga"; Sangeeta Makaranda (written in the 11th
century AD) by Narada, which enumerated 93 Ragas and classified them into
masculine and feminine species; Swaramela-kalanidhi (written in the 16th
century AD) by Ramamatya; and Chaturdandi-prakssika (written in the 17th
century AD) by Venkatamakhi.
    Music started its journey with devotional content and for purely ritualistic
use. Thus, in the beginning, it was restricted to temples. The evolution which
started during the late Vedic period with a form of music called Samgana that
involved chanting of the verses set to musical patterns continued, giving rise
to various forms of music like Jatigan that used to narrate the epics, to
Prabandh Sangeet written in Sanskrit and a very popular form of music
between 2nd and 7th century AD. This form paved the way for even a simpler
form called dhruvapad that used Hindi as the medium. Indian music entered
into its golden era during the Gupta Period. The music treatises like Natya
Shastra and Brihaddeshi saw the light of the day during this period.
    With the entry of Persian music, Indian music underwent a major change
in the style of its Northern Indian music. It is said that Persian music has had
the single most important influence on Indian music. In the 15th century AD,
the devotional dhruvapad transformed into the dhrupad form of singing
thanks to the patronage given to the classical music by the rulers. The journey
of the Indian classical music, which started from the ritualistic music in
association with folk music and other forms of music of India"s extended
neighbourhood, thus culminated into its own characteristic art. With passage
of time finally the two separate schools of music emerged. These are the
Hindustani (North Indian music) and the Carnatic (South Indian music)
music. However, both the schools of music are deep-rooted into Bharata"s
Natyashastra. Only around 14th century AD the two schools started to grow
into two distinctly different identities of music. The fundamental difference
became that the Carnatic music established itself as kriti based and saahitya
(lyric) oriented, while the Hindustani music not only emphasised on the
musical structure but also looked for the possibilities of improvisation in it.
Further to the fundamentality of  the Hindustani and Carnatic music, while the