Carnatic , or the South Indian style of classical music , traces its early roots to the vedas . Bharata's Natya Sastra , from around the 5th century A.D. , and Saranga Deva's Sangita Ratnakara , from the 13th century A.D. , are considered the earliest recorded treatises on the theory and performance of Indian music. The history of Carnatic music points to a tremendous rejuvenation in its practice and popularity with the contributions of the saints Sri Purandharadasaru ( 15th century A.D.) , Sri Thyagarajar , Sri Shyama Sastri ( all of 18th century A.D.) , and left an enduring legacy of compositions .

Carnatic music differs from Western classical music in terms of a greater stress on melody rather than on harmony among instruments . A carnatic music concert show-cases one or two main performers ( vocal or instrumental ) , accompanied by a small number of supporting musicians on a combination of percussion , wind  and / or string instruments . The violin , played in the Indian style ( against the knee ) , the flute , the ghatam ( a large clay pot used as a percusion instrument ) , and  the mridangam ( a double headed drum ) are the most usual accompanying instruments.  Performances are given in a chamber-music setting , and the artists seek to develop a rapport with their audience , thereby involving the audience in the performance . Knowledgeable audience members 'keep beat' by softly clapping to the beat of the artists .

Carnatic music is based on a 22 scale note contrary to the 12 note scale that is used in the western classical music . But , generally , not more than 16 notes are used in practice . An unique combination of these notes , or swara as they are called , gives rise to a raga. The features and the constraints of a raga will be clearly defined in the arrangement of the notes in its arohanam ( ascending notes ) and avarohanam ( descending notes ) . Given a raga , any deviation from the order defined in its arohanam-avarohanam is considered to be incorrect . Thus , in Carnatic music , the raga is a pre-defined form of melody . Different combinations of the notes gives rise to different raga . Thus , there are thousands of unique raga in the literature though very few of them are being performed currently . Two important features of the raga are the gamaka and brigha . The former refers to the frequency modulation about a particular note and the latter refers to the speed with which one performs a set of notes . The gamaka and the brigha adds to the beauty of the melody that is performed . Western music is mostly based on flat notes whereas , here , the notes are performed with modulations . The brigha could be an eight , sixteenth or so on . Another important aspect of the Carnatic music is the thalam . The thalam refers to the rhythm of the music that is performed . There are more than hundreds of thalam , but again , very few are in practice . The most popular thalam have 3 , 4 , 5 , 7 or 8 beats.

In Carnatic music , the artist organizes each song into three categories , namely , the alpana , the krithi and the niraval . The objective of alpana is to exploit the nuances and features of a raga . A performer chooses a raga and through his creativity , brings out the depth of the raga using various sets of swara , gamaka and brigha . The alpana is not set to any rhythm . The next part of the performance is the lyrics of the song , called the krithi or the keerthana . The importance of the krithi can not be understressed , because , it is the core around which the entire music is being built . The krithi will have devotional content .Then comes the niraval , in which the artist uses the swara to bring out the depth of the raga in a rhythmic pattern. Accompaniments like violin , mridangam and the ghatam greatly enhance the quality of the overall performance.

Carnatic concerts usually begin with a short piece called varnam , followed by elaborate compositions called krithi . A krithi consists of segments reffered to as pallavi , anupallavi and charanam . The pallavi illustrates the unique theme of the raga in its lower range , while the anupallavi sets up a constrasting theme of the raga in its upper range . The charanam are different stanzas of the compositions . The main piece of a performance is a kriti which is preceded by an elaborate alapana , in which the artist improvises on the basic structure , and displays his ingenuity in performance . Performances end with a mangalam , an invocation for the welfare of the world.