Indian Music Therapy Treatment
Indian music therapy method is very ancient, it’s also the most ancient music system in the world. To treat people’s mental and physical Ailments, music is the best method and Indians Greek and users knew this fact even 4000 years before. This music is believed to be brought down to human beings by the Celestial beings, who came down from heaven and performed this music for the people. These celestial beings, in those days, were called musical deities or Gandharvas. In India even before the vedic period, Gandharva sangeetham was in use. Therefore, curing mental and physical ailments through music has been termed as music therapy or Gandharvas chikitsa by our ancestors.
Among many musical systems of the world, the Indian musical system is a very ancient system and it has a broader spectrum with many Bhavas. To be specific, many music systems have the nature to activate or engage the external sensors of people. But Indian music resonates in such a way that it can bring about chemical changes and emotional changes or psychological changes in a human body. It is also believed to have an impact on the environment and nature. Every natural sound has the ability to kindle many emotions within the listener. Congregational resonation of such sounds is called raga. The rasa bhavas expressed by these ragas and its impact on the listeners and environment were closely observed while naming these ragas. From very ancient times, Indian musicians have been releasing the mental stress of people by implementing the Indian way of music therapy to the fullest of their capacities through the songs that they sing. This is what is meant by therapy through music. Guruji Natyacharya Sri S Balachandra Raju has done wide research on the implementation of therapy through music and he has brought out videos, books and audio clippings for the same.
The very ancient music systems of the world are Indian, Chinese and Greek music systems. Among these in the Indian system the names assigned to each scale has a reason behind it. These scales are called ragas. While naming these ragas, the musical experts of the Indian system have done great research into the effects of these ragas on people’s mind, surroundings and nature. This is the very basis of Indian music therapy. Indian music has 2 branches- Carnatic music and Hindustani music. In both these styles, there are ragas that are said to relieve people of ailments and on the basis of these experiences, musicologists and medical experts have categorised these ragas as therapeutic music.
Indian musical instruments also seem to have been designed specially for Music Therapy. Especially, wind instruments like Nadaswaram, shehnai and flute and string instruments like Veena, RudraVeena, Sarangi and Dilrupa emanates sound in such a way that it creates great impact on the listeners’ mind and the surrounding environment, therefore, they are called Gandharva vadhyas and were the given the status of divinity and given in the hands if deities to be further worshipped. Indeed, ragas being played in these instruments itself make it therapeutic and paves way for Indian music therapy.
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