Music is as old as the Vedas. The primordial man had a natural rhythm in his body - basic to life being the heartbeat, and all the natural sounds - the rustling of the wind through the bamboo groves, the murmur of the streams and the pitter-patter of rain, the cooing of the koel - all of these gave rise to the flowering of the musical instincts in man. Karnatic Classical music too, is born out of the folk, traditional, and natural musical instincts of mankind, nurtured by the development of civilization, by the intellectual advances and rationalizing instincts of man. This music is closely linked to Hindu mythology, with the allusions to the Saraswathi Veena, and lord Krishna's flute. Some time in the early part of this century was the first composer of Classical form, that we know today - Jayadeva, who wrote the classic Geetha Govindam.

Shortly after this the division of Indian Classical music into North Indian and South Indian took place, with the influence of the Moghul rule and culture in the northern regions of India. First reference to the terms : Karnataka and Hindustani music is in the work, Sangita Sudhakara, of Haripala, written between 1309- 1312 AD. Though the underlying principles like Raga and Tala are a common thread in both systems, the treatment and execution is slightly different and this gives rise to the distinct flavours of the two great twin systems of India.

The flowering of the systems of Karnatic music was further made possible by Venkatamahi the great theoretician, who formulated the 72 melakartha scheme, and the trinity composers in the 19 th century, who gave the wealth of compositions that today form the mainstay of the traditional kritis in Karnatic music. Parallelly there developed the instrumental tradition which in Karnatic music seeks to largely mirror the vocal traditions. The concert system and the formats have undergone some mutations over the last 50 years as well as the patronage and support systems for music. Today we also are on the brink of realising aspects like 'market' for Karnatic music, international recognition for this great system and modern gadgets and gizmos like web sites for Classical music and electronic instruments and synthesizers, as well as new instruments and innovations in existing instruments.