MUSIC AND OTHER ART FORMS IN INDIA

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.