History of Raga Music - Around 12th Century

Between 1210 A.D. and 1247 A.D, Sharangadev, who was a great musician in the court of the Yadav kings of Devgiri (later named Daulatabad) wrote his famous book Sangeeta Ratnakara. This book actually gave a sound and scientific basis to music.

There was a slight setback tio the music of North India in the first half of the 12th century due to the constant military encounters between the Hindus and Muslims. In the latter half of that century, Jayadev, the famous poet-musicologist wrote his beautiful book of lyrics called Geeta Govinda. The songs spoke of Krishna, Radha and the Gopis - of love and longing and the joy and sorrow that revolves around these emotions. These songs written in pure Sanskrit were set to tune based on the Jati music and were known as Prabandha.

Later, Sanskrit was replaced by a language that was more commonly followed in that region. The local language - mainly around Uttar Pradesh - was called Braj Bhasha or Brij Bhasha. This dialect gradually became the predominent medium of expression even in music.