Contributions of Saints and Seers to the Music of India

Contents: Preface. Volume: I : I. Introduction : 1. Origin of music as a part of divine worship. 2. A brief study of myths and legends of different lands. 3. Babylonia and Assyria. 4. Egypt. 5. Greece. 6. Israel. 7. Mesopotamia. 8. Ireland. 9. China. 10. Japan. 11. India. 12. Later scientific theories. Conclusion. II. Development of devotional music in India in ancient times : 1. Music during primitive times. 2. The musical tribes of India. 3. Place of music in ancient Dravidian tribal culture. 4. Vedic age. 5. Samveda. 6. The upanishadic period. 7. Samgan in Shiksha Granthas. 8. The epic period. 9. In Ramayana. 10. In Mahabharata. 11. The Buddhist period. 12. Historical background. 13. Place of music in Buddhist religion. 14. Music as a part of Jainism. 15. In smriti granthas. 16. In sangam literature. 17. In the puranas. 18. Natya shastra. 19. The Gupta period. 20. Music in the reign of Harshvardhana. Conclusion. III. Place of Sufism in the development of Indian devotional music : 1. Mysticism in Islam. 2. Sufism. 3. Sufism & Bhakti. 4. Sufism and music. 5. Baba Farid. 6. Amir Khusro. 7. Sufism in Deccan. 8. Sufism in Gujarat. 9. Tansen. 10. Raskhan. 11. Rahim. 12. Taj. 13. Daud. 14. Jaisi. 15. Qutuban and Manjhan. 16. Sufi poets of Sindh, of Punjab. 17. Muslim poets' poetry with Hindu themes. 18. Contribution of Faizi Brothers. 19. Influence on Mughal Badshahs. 20. Contribution to devotional music. IV. Saints of south India : 1. Evolution of Theism. 2. The Alvar saints and Nayanmar saints. 3. Introduction. 4. Growth of Vaishnavism. 5. The Alvars. 6. Shaivaism. 7. The Nayanmars. 8. Purandar Das. 9. Kanak Dasa. 10. Tyagaraja Shyama Shastri. 11. Muthuswami Dikshitar. 12. Swati Thirunal. V. The influence of Shankara and Ramanuja on Hindu revival in the north and their impact on devotional music : 1. Introduction. 2. Shankaracharya. 3. Ramanuja Acharya. 4. Nimbarka and Vallabhacharya. VI. Saints of north India : 1. Introduction. 2. The Bhakti Movement. 3. Ramanand and his disciples. 4. Kabir. 5. Raidas. 6. Dadu Dayal. 7. Guru Nanak. 8. Surdas. 9. Swami Haridas. 10. Meera Bai. 11. Goswami Tulsidas. 12. Narsimha Mehta. 13. General conclusion.

Volume II : VII. Saints of Maharashtra : 1. Krishna bhakti in Maharashtra. 2. Pundalik and Vitthal cult. 3. Mahanubhav Panth. 4. Pandit Damodar. 5. Vitthal Pant. 6. Nivritinath. 7. Jnaneshwar. 8. Varkari Sampradaya. 9. Jnaneshwar's contribution to music. 10. Namdev. 11. His contribution to music. 12. Eknath. 13. Tukaram. Conclusion. VIII. Saints of eastern regions : 1. Introduction. 2. Kavi Jaideva. 3. Geet Govind. 3. Its musical value. 4. Vidyapati. 5. The musical value of his Padas. 6. Chandidas. 7. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. 8. Contribution to music. 9. Baul. 10. Saints of Assam. 11. Shankar Dev and Madhav Dev. 12. Their contributions. IX. The contribution of the reform-movements to religious revival and congregational worship in India : 1. Brahmo Samaj. 2. Gurudev Tagore. 3. Prarthana Samaj. 4. Narayan Vaman Tilak. 5. Mahatma Gandhi. 6. Sarva Dharma Samabhav. 7. Modern eminent singers of devotional music. 8. V.D. Paluskar. 9. D.V. Paluskar. 10. Juthika Roy. 11. M.S. Subbalakshmi.

"It is a work undertaken to establish that music and especially formalised music of India initiated, developed and progressed through the devotional hymns of devotees of god.

Whether they were the Aryan Rishi-poets cum singers, Buddhist or Jain monks or Alwar and Nayanmar saints of south or Sufi saints or saint singers like Kabir, Sur, Meera, Nanak of the north or devotees of Vitthal of Maharashtra or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Chandidas and others from Bengal or Shankar Dev and Madhav Dev of Assam all of them sang their devotional hymns as a part of formalised music of India.

Sam-gayan" of Vedic-reshis is supposed to be the first stage of formalised music of our country and the author has tried to establish that this music developed into a system of scale and Murchchanas as the "Sam-gayan" also developed and progressed.

Thus, in the present work, it has been stressed that the trend of rendering devotional hymns, as a part of formalised music was set centuries ago because the rishi-singers believed that "Swaras" of Indian music were not merely a collection of notes but they were founded on microtones known as "Shrutis" which could bring the human-mind to meditation leading to the attainment of god-consciousness.

Hence, the main theme of the book is that the different mile-stones in the development of the formalised or classicalised music of India-viz. introduction of "Gandharva" and "Desi" systems of music, replacement of "Jati-Gayan" by "Raga-Gayan" as well as evolution of the kinds of "Gitis" i.e. from "Richas" to "Gathas" to "Mangal-Gitis", "Charya" and "Vajra Gitis", "Nathgitis", "Prabandhas", "Shabads", "Padas" to "Vishnu-Padas" are due to the contribution of Rishi-Muni singers of India. Besides this, the author has tried to establish that during the dark ages in the history of Indian music it was preserved and kept alive by the saint-singers of our nation, e.g. there is no evidence of any kind where our music was after Amir-Khusro and before Sultan Hussein Sharki of Jaunpur who hailed in the later part of the 15th century." (jacket)