CHINESE AND INDIAN CULTURE

Music and Poetry in Chinese and Indian Culture



Music and Poetry in Chinese and Indian Culture

Introduction

Note that both India and China are large countries that gave rise to a diversity of cultures. In addition, as neighbors for 5000 years, a lot of culture has been shared and transferred between the two. As such, the cultures are very similar in a lot of ways.

Critical Analysis

Indian Music and Poetry

Music has always occupied a highly important stature in Indian culture. The music of India includes several varieties of music including folk, classical, pop and film. It is believed that the Indian music came into being with the chanting of Vedic hymns. There are references to various string and wind instruments, several kinds of drums and cymbals in the Vedas.

Bharata composed the Natyasastra (Treatise on the Dramatic Arts) between the 2nd and 5th century AD. Since then, the treatise has influenced the development of Indian music, dance and the performing arts. The term 'Raga', the base of the Indian music, was first discussed in the Brihaddesi, the 10th century work attributed to Matanga. Sarngadeva, the author of Sangitaratnakara listed 264 ragas in the 13th century (Ruckert, 2003).

The credit of introducing the system of classical music goes to Amir Khusro. Traditionally, the songs were composed in Sanskrit. But by the 16th century, they were being composed in the various Hindi dialects such as Braj Bhasa and Bhojpuri as well as Persian and Urdu. The poet-saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, Kabir and Mirabai made devotional songs (Bhajans) highly popular. Ghazal , yet another popular form of music in India, is not a musical form but a poetic recitation. Ghazal traces its roots in classical Arabic poetry and was introduced in India in the 12th century by the Muslims.

The great poet-saints who chose ...