Which of the following correctly reflects the evolution of Indian classical music?
- (a)Jatis evolved from ragas as per ancient texts
- (b)72-mela system was given by Bharata in 13th century
- (c)Folk music originally used mela and grama scales
- (d)Ragas evolved from jatis; 72-mela was by Venkatamakhi
Answer
Why
Correct — D. Both halves hold. In the ancient texts the jati was the technical mode, and raga grew out of it into a fuller idea that also takes in the listener's experience.
The 72-mela scheme belongs to Venkatamakhi, a 17th-century musicologist, who set it out in his Chaturdandi Prakashika. It is the basis of the melakarta system of Carnatic music → option (d).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Jatis evolved from ragas as per ancient texts — This reverses the order. The jati is the older concept of the ancient texts, and raga developed out of it, not the other way round.
- (b)72-mela system was given by Bharata in 13th century — Both parts are wrong. Bharata's Natya Shastra is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, and the 72-mela scheme is Venkatamakhi's, from the 17th century.
- (c)Folk music originally used mela and grama scales — Grama and mela are terms of the theory texts, not of folk practice. The Natya Shastra discusses gramas as scales, and mela classification belongs to later treatises, such as Ramamatya's (c. 1550) and Venkatamakhi's.
Concept
Indian music theory built up in layers.
The Natya Shastra, attributed to Bharata, discusses gramas (scales) and their modes, and its jatis are the forerunners of raga.
Sharngadeva's 13th-century Sangita Ratnakara, written at the Yadava court of Devagiri, separates marga, the classical rules taught by Bharata, from desi, regional music.
Mela systems group ragas under parent scales. Ramamatya proposed one around 1550, and Venkatamakhi's 72-mela scheme followed in the 17th century.
Option (d) compresses two claims into one line. Venkatamakhi gave the 72-mela scheme, but the names and rules used with it today were standardised later by Govindacharya.
Key facts
- Venkatamakhi set out the 72-mela scheme in his Chaturdandi Prakashika in the 17th century.
- Sharngadeva wrote the Sangita Ratnakara in the 13th century at the court of the Yadava king Simhana.
- Ramamatya's Svaramelakalanidhi (c. 1550) proposed an earlier mela system.
- Hindustani music groups ragas into 10 thaats, the rough counterpart of the 72 melakartas.
Study next
Common traps
- Crediting the 72-mela scheme to Bharata or Sharngadeva because they wrote the best-known treatises.
- Reversing jati and raga because raga is the more familiar word.
Here the history of music theory is tested through four compressed statements, each pairing a concept with a text, an author or a century.
Sharngadeva's treatise is asked outright at 17 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.4 (keyed Sangeet Ratnakara). The word jaati returns at 13 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.3, where a six-note raga is classed as Shadav jaati — there jati means a raga's note-count, not the ancient mode.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.