Indian Arts & Entertainment

India's traditional art and entertainment forms are amongst the most evolved and sophisticated of such systems. Carnatic music, classical dances like Bharathanatyam, Kuchipudi etc, theatre and drama forms including Harikatha and folk arts are amongst the traditional and ancient art and entertainment forms today. Indian films which today have their own idioms are patterned after the traditional arts in their formative years during 1930's and 40's. Carnatic music and bharathanatyam reigned supreme in Tamil films during this period. Indian cinema especially Hindi and Tamil cinema have grown to be one of the largest film industries in the world, perhaps next only to Hollywood.

India's classical arts like Carnatic music, dance, theatre and drama have traditions and history going back to several centuries. The musical forms prevalent today including Carnatic and Hindustani music have their roots in "Sama Veda" one of the four Vedas which are the eternal and timeless scriptures from which the religious and social ethos of the sub-continent evolved. Bharatnatyam too has an ancient antiquity with authoritative source books for it like "Natya Sastra" by the sage Bharata Muni and "Abhinaya Darpana" by Nandi Kesava dating back to centuries before Christ (scholars are yet to agree on the precise period)

Another unique feature of the Indian art tradition is the guru-sishya parampara (teacher taught lineage). In this form of learning a student of an art form lived for long periods often more than a decade as apart of the teachers family where he learnt not just an art like carnatic music or dance but also imbibed the value systems of his guru. Thus there was an unbroken lineage not only of the art form but also a certain value system that was necessary for the growth and practice of the art. Sadly this centuries old system which flourished until the early part of this century is now more or less extinct.