Sangita

Sangita (Devanagari: संगीत, IAST: saṃgīta), also spelled Samgita or Sangeeta, refers to "music and associated performance arts" in the Indian traditions. According to Guy Beck, the root "saṃ-" implies "combining, coming together, convergent wholesome blending, unison" in the context of musical arts.Sangita connotes any form of singing with music, harmonious recitation or chorus singing in particular. In some medieval era literary genre such as the Puranas and poetic texts such as Kathasaritsagar, a related term Sangita-shastra and Sangita-vidya mean the "art, science or knowledge of singing and dancing with music". According to Alison Arnold and Bruno Nettl, the modern term music fails to capture the historic sense of "Sanskrit sangita and Greek mousike". In the Indian tradition, the term sangita includes melodious singing, rhythmic dancing, instrumental music, classical, provincial, ritual chanting and incidental forms of music-related performance arts.

Nada (intelligible sound) is
the treasure of happiness for the happy,
the distraction of those who suffer,
the winner of the hearts of the hearers,
the first messenger of the god of love...
the fifth approach to the eternal wisdom, the Veda.

Sangita is broadly categorized as consisting of three interrelated knowledges: gita (vocal music, song), vadya (instrumental music), and nrtya (dance, movement). These ideas appear in the Vedic literature of Hinduism such as in the Aitareya Brahmana, and in early post-Vedic era Sanskrit texts such as the Natya Shastra, Panchatantra, Malvikagnimitra and Kathasaritsagara. A stringed instrument is described with proportional lengths in Jaiminiya Brahmana and Aitareya Aranyaka, and these are compared to poetical meters. It is referred to as "Gandharva Sangita" in the ancient Hindu texts, whose leader is mentioned to be the Vedic sage Narada – the author of seven hymns of the Rigveda. The Hindu goddess Saraswati in revered in these texts as the source and patron of sangita.

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