For at least 3,000 years, music has been a cultivated art in India. References in Vedic literature, scriptures of Buddhism and folk songs show how it developed as a shared art. History has left India two great traditions, with a Hindu concentration in the south and an Islamic-Indian one in the north. The carnatic music of the south contains great devotions to God and mystics. Hindustani music, the name generally given to north Indian music, flourished during the period of greatest Muslim influence, during the rule of Emperor Akbar in the 16th century.
Indian music disproves any theory about non-Western music being undeveloped.
There are thousands of ragas, each for a specific mood or occasion. At the entrance of many hamlets along the Konkan coast, south of Bombay, little signboards display a painted horn or other instrument, along with the name of a musician and an arrow pointing to their place of residence. Legend has it that the locals, known as Mahars, were once great musicians. They are now basket weavers, but still play their instruments at weddings, feasts and vigils. In the great wheat plains of Punjab, women sing as they harvest the crops which feed millions.