Hindustani classical music – of syllables, notes and literature.

Naad is sound. Anaahat naad and Aahat naad are the 2 forms of naad, where Anaahat is the sound of the divinity which is unstruck, and Aahat naad is every other sound that’s created by striking, and perhaps is a human effort to be divine!

The power of sound, by itself, is understated because we hardly are inspired by the mere presence of it. When in touch with sound singularly, that is in silence, in an empty room or in meditation, we tend to find the acoustics powerful. A miniscule speck of sound proves its gravid significance. Naad is musical when such sounds are organized and are prevented from becoming noise.

Music, being the lifeblood of art and classical art at that, is comprised of naad in its various forms. Instrumental music is the manipulation of naad in its purest avatar and there’s no mix-up of sounds with words and vocalized poetry. Once naad is vocalized, there has to be, the third dimension of words and oral pronunciations, besides Sur and Taal.

Language of music – the alphabet
All the music of the world is born out of seven notes or the Saptak. Each swar or note comes with a distinct intonation as well as pronunciation. For instance, the note Sa is sung with an aakar or an ‘aa’ effect, Re has aykar and so on. When the notes are played on any instrument, say, the strings of a Sitar or the strains of a Flute or a Shehnai, the effect is different. However, the notes are the same, and the swars play like mere tunes!

Now, when the notes are sung, the nomenclature plays its part. With the vowel following the consonant to make it a musical letter in S(aa), R(ay), G(a), M(a), P(a), Dh(a), N(i), there’s the genesis of a whole new dimension of naming the notes. These notes, sung in complimenting groups or the swar-samudaya, with the backing of the rhythmic cycle called Taal, and within the bounds of a raga, are known as Sargam. Sargam, strictly the privilege of the vocal territory, when played on an instrument, becomes a ‘dhun’ or literally a tune.

Orchestrating with the voice
Let’s picture it in this way – swars are souls and vocalizing them means rendering them a body, and christening them as Sa, Re Ga, Ma and so on.
In any language, 2 or more letters are put together to form words. In a fashion similar to that, in the language of vocal music, 2 or more naads are brought together to form words – sometimes to create a certain musical picture and sometimes plain imitations of the sounds of instruments. These sounds may not have any meaning all by themselves, but when sung in styles like the Taraana and the trivat, the listener can feel the orchestrative impact and the concept being delivered.

The taraana consists of syllables like tanana, yalalee and the likes. Taraana is sung in medium and fast tempo and is void of any bhaava or expression. It’s sung solely to display the prowess of the performer. The naads here are close to instruments often sounding like the strains of the Sitar and the Veena. On the other hand, Trivat closely resembles the sounds of the Tabla, Mridangam and the Pakhavaj. The syllables used in trivat are dha, kdandha, takdeem and the works. The orchestrative effects of the naads created while singing is spell-binding.

The third dimension - lyric
When naad demands life – ras and bhaava, the need for poetry arises. Poetry in Hindustani classical music has its own standing, at times quite indispensable and at other times, one can do away with it. The most popular ancient style of rendering in Hindustani vocal music is that of the Dhrupad, that comprises the raag-vistaar and the aalap or the elucidation of the raga in slow, medium and fast tempos. These are sung in rhythmic beats, and syllables like retanana are used. Following the aalap is the verse that mostly describes Krishna’s divinity, and has the bhakti ras or devotional expression as the central theme. Dhamaar is a style based on the same lines as the dhrupad, but the poetry generally describes Krishna’s childhood and the days of his youth.

The modern styles of singing in Hindustani music are the khyal-gayaki and the semi-classical Thumris and Daadras. Khyal-gayaki consists of a bandish or a pair of couplets. These, indubitably, are of poetic value but the raag-vistaar holds the pinnacle of importance here. Words and lyrics hold a place of honor in Thumri, Daadra, Bhajan, Ghazal et al. Khyal is the most widely rendered style in Hindustani classical music. It was popularized by the mughal emperors of the 17th-18th centuries, and the legacy continues even today.

The couplet in khyal is followed by aalap- the expression and annotation of the notes of the raga by the performer, and taan – the fast paced singing of the notes that gives scope for the performer to display his vocal skills.

Thumri and Daadra are light classical forms in which the performer has ample freedom in terms of experimenting with the raga, sometimes even mixing other ragas into it. These are basically lyric-oriented verses where the lines describe Krishna’s divine love for Radha, and strongly maintaining love and longing as the theme.


Music, per se, has a powerful life generating impact, and there have been innumerable writings on the same. On a similar note, breathing life into strummed and strained naads on instruments is to vocalize the naads – be it in the form of poetic aesthetics, or simple reverberations of a pleasant kind and sometimes strong and characteristically bold.