Abstract

Music is connected with the religious sentiments of human beings. Human religious believers have interpreted music as the utterances of Gods and lauded it as the purest expression of spirituality. Throughout the majority of human history, religious texts have been sung rather than written, and religious behavior has been expressed through prayer or devotional melodies or music in almost all religious traditions. Religious music's values, functions, and genres are culturally diverse and varied. Religious musical forms can transcend cultural barriers. Some religions, such as Buddhism, use music to prepare the mind for meditation by calming and focusing it. In India, the Kirtana, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, Bhagawat Purana, and other Puranas are the religious or sacred books of Hindus. The poetic verse of these epic and non-epic is performed by the local artist or traditional artist in local languages in different musical tunes or notes. The iconography of Indian music contains numerous elements that represent the human religion, culture, traditions, way of life, thinking, values, customs, costumes, rituals, and behavior throughout the centuries through visual art and symbolism like sculpture, architecture, an idol of God, etc. Therefore, iconography is a specialized discipline of study that examines images of Gods and about existence. Indian music and dance are the culmination of one of the world's finest civilizations' evolutions. Iconography related to Indian music entails the study of dancing figures, images, deities, and pictorial representations of music, ragas, and musical instruments which are found in various temples, caves, and Mughal miniature paintings and Rajasthani Ragamala paintings.