Indian music is broadly divided into two genres – Hindustani and Carnatic. Hindustani music is the genre that comes from North India. Carnatic music is the South Indian genre. While there is no chronological noting on the origin of both these forms of music, their antecedents have been traced back to nearly three thousand years. The Sama Veda talks of Indian music in detail.

Evolution
One notable feature about both these music forms is that they have not remained static and have continuously evolved. Both music forms have not been too particular about retaining their purity and have absorbed the features of other music forms like folk lore and devotional music.

Elements
Considering the evolution and changes in music, the basic elements of the forms remained the same. The basic elements include the adherence to a ‘taal’ as it is called in Hindustani Music and ‘taalam’ as it is called in Carnatic music. This is the rhythmic and melodic line followed by the art forms. ‘Shruti’ or tone is maintained with the help of a ‘Taanpura’. Both the music forms have ‘Raagas’ which are a combination of the ‘sapta swaras’- the seven notes(Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni).

Raaga
There are many ‘raagas’ in both the music forms although most of them have different names. There are some ragas having the same name in both the forms like the Malkauns. The music forms differ in the rendition of the ‘raagas’. The same raga would sound different when rendered in Hindustani music and Carnatic music. The reason is that while Carnatic music lays a lot of emphasis on the lyrics and does not follow time or ‘samay ‘concepts, Hindustani music has a lot of on ‘alaap’ where there are no words used but the ragas notes are brought out by sheer vocal reflexes.

The Approach
Hindustani music has also been more ready to embrace new styles whether it is the Muslim Style or the folk music of the place where it is practiced. This has given rise to many ‘gharanas’ or sub-genres in Hindustani Music which basically carry a flavor of the place in which they are sung. Carnatic music on the other hand has been more conservative in approach when it came to taking new music styles in its fold.