How is Carnatic music different from Hindustani music?
Unlike Hindustani music, Carnatic music has been uninfluenced by any other tradition outside of the different cultures of South India, for many thousands of years. While Hindustani music evolved as a hybrid of traditional Indian music of the time and strong influences from the Persian and other Muslim cultures (thanks to the Muslim invasions of the Northern part of India most notably from around the 15th century), Carnatic music remained ‘pure’ and unaffected by any other influences (musical or otherwise). Although Carnatic music and Hindustani music both come under the broad term ‘Indian classical music’, they are quite different from each other. They may both use the concept of ‘ragas’ (melodic universe) and ‘tala’s (rhythmic universe) as the building blocks of their architecture, but the comparison stops there (and SHOULD stop there). Both are highly developed musical traditions but have little in common with each other (unlike what most people think). An interesting analogy would b
