A lot of development in music stemmed from being played at devotional sites. This type of ritualistic music was displayed in the later Vedic period through a type of music called Sangama, which involved chanting of verses that were usually set to musical patterns.
Even the epics were set to the narrative type of music called the Jatigan.
The first work that clarified and elaborated on the subject of musicology was Bharata’s Natyashastra. It contains several important chapters on music, especially the ones that identified the octave and elaborated on its 22 keys. These 22 keys were recognised as shrutis or srutis. This distinction was made in Dathilam, a text that endorsed the existence of 22 srutis per octave and made the suggestion that maybe these were the only one that a human body could make. Sarangadeva, a 13th-century musicologist who wrote the classic text on music, the Sangeet Ratnakara, seconded this view.
The Sangeet Ratnakara defined about 264 ragas including some from the North Indian and the Dravidian repertoires. Its greatest contribution was to identify and describe the various ‘microtones’ and classify them into different categories. Later, some medieval texts on musicology focused on particular themes, for example, Brihaddeshi written in the 9th century by Matanga focused on the definition of the word ‘raga’.
Similarly, the 11th-century text, Sangeeta Makaranda was composed by Nanda who enumerated 93 ragas and classified them into feminine and masculine forms. Other important texts of this period were Swaramela-Kalanidhi written by Ramamatya in the 16th century which again deals primarily with ragas.
Chaturdandi-prakasika written by Venkatamakhin in the 17th century is also famous for the important information on musicology. During the ancient and early medieval period, we find evidence of the existence of Gurukuls where students lived with the teacher in order to become a master in the art of music.
The change in the tenor of music came with the effect of the Persian elements. This influx of Islamic and Persian elements changed the face of North Indian music, for example, the Dhruvapad or the devotional style of singing patronised by the rulers transformed into the Dhrupad style by the 15th century. By the 17th century, a new form of Hindustani music had evolved which was called the Khayal style. Furthermore, more and more styles of ‘folk’ singing emerged in this period.