MUSIC AND OTHER
ART FORMS IN INDIA
There are many art forms prevalent in this world and people
often use these art forms to ease their tensions and to make them feel
better. Music and various art forms have
always been a help to the people from centuries ago. It is not easy for us to find out when these
entertainments were found and who invented them.
But it is a known fact that these entertainments were not
meant for the ordinery people in olden times.
Centuries ago,these entertainments were meant only for the rulers, lords
and scholars. For example, dance forms
were performed only in front of the rulers and the people who were present in
the floor were only those who held key positions in the kingdom. Music was learned only by the upper class
people of the society and was was performed only in front of the royal
gatherings. During these times, the
ordinery people were not able to learn dance or music. Music was considered to be very noble and was practised only by the upper
class, but it was not the case with dance.
Though dance was performed in the royal gatherings, dance was learned
only by women of a certain category of families. In India it was peroformed by women of the
Devadasi families, whose duty was to
entertain the royal family.
Music was considered to be a devine art form and was practised only by
the higher sections of the society and music conerts were performed only in the
royal gatherings. But when years rolled
by, there was a gradual change and music concerts began to be performed in the
temples at the time of festivals. But these festivals were conducted by the
royal people and other people were allowed to view the programmes from a
distance. Dance programmes began to
appear in the festivals at the temples along with music and slowly music became
an inseparable part of dance forms.
The dancers began to perform dances according to the lyrics
of the songs and when centuries rolled by, the dancers began to perform a full
drama with the help of musicians and lyricists.
Poets began to write their lyrics in the form of a narration and these
were performed by the dancers and there was a treamendous change in this art
form.
Slowly the poetic narrration of stories gave way to direct
story telling and there was again a change in the acting styles of the
dancers. And this was the origin of the
ancient version of the dramas (plays) of the modern times. Formerly the conversations of the plays were
in the poetic styles and then gradually plays
with dialogues were effected and then dance was seperated from drama. By
this time these art forms had become a part of the ordinery people and when
dialogue oriented drama came, they were able to understand the plays.
Even then, music was an important part of these plays and
people began to understand the value of music, since they began to hear it
every now and then. Dance was also
included in the plays but only very rarely.
The invention of Cinema has given a revolutionery change to
the whole scenario. In the olden days
cinema was full of dance and music and slowly they were used wisely and cinema
became a very interesting part of the common people. By
this time people were enlightened so much that they began to learn music and
dance and today there are many a people who make their living with these arts along
with acting.
Again the invention of Television brought another revolution
in the art forms and now in India all the art forms depend on television for
their survival. The television serials
has become very popular among the Indians and there are a lot of people who make a
living with the help of televisions. After the arrival of televisions, Music, Dance, Cinema, TV Serials etc have become highly popular among the Indian families.
Surely there will be
further changes in future which may give another welcome dimension to these art
forms.
