The Dhrupad Style of music has evolved from the Vedas. The ancient rishis used to chant Rychas,, Gathas and Samans and through them used to offer their prayers to their divine.  We frequently find the mention of setting hymns to music for the purpose of singing them in the Rig Veda in form of Archikaha Gayanti, Ganthikaha Gayanti, and Samikaha Gayanti. system. The systems of notes which were present were

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• Archika

• Gathika

• Samika

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To this was added a fourth system

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• Swaranatarah

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This was defined  in to the system of vyakrana swar by Panini.as 

 

• Udhata

• Anudhatta

• Swarita

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The chanting of Rig Veda makes use of these notes. 

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Later these 3 notes evolved into a system of  7 notes  सा, रे, ग, म ,प, ध, नी. These seven notes form the basis of Indian Classical Music Systems today. The pentonic scales used in the Saam Veda were descending scales starting with  ma and proceeding ग, रे, सा, नी, ध. The music developed by Rishis  and Acharyas was called Margi Sangeet

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The music which got adapted to various regions using the local languages etc became know as  Deshi Sangeet. The Ascending scales from the orignal descending scale were developed when music started getting performed for connoisseurs.

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To  study the musical notes a method of Aranya gaan was adopted. The artist would go into the quiet of the forest and using different vowels such as Haa, Ho, Hee would study the harmonics and mastered the technique of manipulating consonances and disononces of the swaras. The aranyagan later on evolved into grameya gaan. Till this period the music was in an anibaddha state (unbounded). Then came the period of prabandh gayan which was bounded or composed music. It is said that Prabandhas had max eight parts. The text was basically Sanskrit.  Dhrupad music derived directly from Prabandh Gayan.

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At time of Panini the music was sung with 7 notes. The music itself was divided into  four parts

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• Prastava

• Udgita

• Pratihara

• Nidhana

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The abstract sylables used in the present day Alap of Dhrupad are said to have evolved from here.

Today’s Dhrupad also has four parts to it.

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• Sthayi,

• Antara

• Abhog

• Sanchari

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The basic grammar of Dhrupad sung today is derived from Saam and music as mentioned in Shiksha Texts. Later on during the period of Maan Singh Tomar dhrupad adopted Braj Bhasha as the the language for Dhrupad instead of Sanskrit. Brisj Bhasha was more singable and easier to compose since it does not have complex consonants ( जोड अक्षर ). Sarangdev one of the best known scholars of  music and the writer of Sangit Ratnakara, a treatise on music,  describes different styles of singing or Geetis. Five  Geetis have been described  in the treatise.

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The Geetis described by Sarangdev are

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• Shudha

• Bhinna

• Gaudi

• Vegaswara

• Sadharani

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Each of the geeti has a distinct style of its own. Sadharani is the unique blend of other four geetis but is distinct in nature. Sadharani Geeti later on became Dagarvani of today. The Sadharani Geeti was propogated by Ustad Zakriruddin khan Dagar and Ustad Ziauddin Dagar of Udaipur, Grand Father and Father of Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and Ustad Zia Faridduddin Dagar.  To Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar goes the credit of adapting and reforming the Rudra Veena so that Dagarvani could be played on it.

Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar though a renowned Veena Player, was  basically a vocalist of the highest standards. His vocal and knowledge of the veena enhanced the Vani further with the precision of notes and exquiste timing of syllables in execution of the Alap.