This books deals historically with the music materials of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The plan of writing this book has absolutely been devised from a new outlook with many new findings and records of Indian music.

The book is divided into three volumes. This first volume has covered the periods, primitive, Prehistoric, Vedic, Epic, Buddhistic and Classical and has discussed the materials of music, their development and systems upto Bharata's Natyasastra.

This volume has discussed about Vedic music gandharva-music, classical marga-music and sophisticated desi-music and has proved that the later marga type of classical music evolved partly from the Vedic music and greatly from the gandharva-music devised and cultured by the semi-divine Gandharvas.

This volume has elaborately discussed about the systems of dramatic stage and dramatic performance as described by muni bharata and for comparative study and knowledge it has dealt with the theatres of Athens, Greece and Crete, along with laws and principles of drama and dramatic plays of the Hindus and the Greeks. The mythologies of the Veda and Purana are the keys to unlock the mysteries inner significance and meanings of the Vedas and epics and the real research workers will be benefited with these notes of Prof. Macdonell Hillebrandt and Hopkins.