Indian music at its heart is religious, or devotional music, coming from Hindu chants and hymns set to melodies. Indian classical music, such as the music played by popular classical Indian musicians like Ravi Shankar, is largely improvisational, which separates it in a very essential way from Western classical music, which is entirely written in notation before a musical plays it.
Classical Indian ragas are based on a singular melody, with a droning instrument underneath, in the same key. The musician then improvises on the melody, wherever it takes him or her, which leaves the possibilities for creation endless.
In Western music, modern jazz comes closest to matching Indian music in terms of freedom of improvisation, especially such artists as John Coltrane, who was known for soloing over a single chord or key for extended periods.
Indian music was popularly introduced to the west by George Harrison of The Beatles, who introduced the sound of the sitar into Beatles' records, and who studied with Ravi Shankar.
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