Comparison of North Indian and South Indian Classical Music

Two distinct styles of classical music exist today in India. In the North, Hindusthani has become the standard for classical music, while in the Southern Plateau (Carnatic) Region, the karnataka sangeeta has remained accepted since the sixteenth century. Both types of music still have many similarities but the exposure of the Northern music to Persian and Muslim influences has made it distinct from the relatively uninfluenced music of the Carnatic Plateau. India is a subcontinent …

…excellent examples of how the Muslim and Persian influences on Northern India influenced the sound and style of Hindusthani especially on the timbre of the instruments and the tone of the music, but the fundamentals and the elements of the music remain very closely related and hard to distinguish. This results in a very noticeable difference when listening to the music, but after careful analysis, the similarities between the two types of music are unmistakable.