Dhrupad (Hindi: ध्रुपद) is the oldest surviving style of music in the Hindustani musical tradition in India. Its name, from dhruva-pada, simply means "refrain", and today denotes both a form of poetry and a style of music in which the poetry is sung.
Like all Indian classical music, dhrupad is modal, with a single melodic line and no harmonic parts. The modes are called raga, and each raga is a complicated framework of melodic rules. What sets dhrupad apart from other styles are long elaborate alaps without drum accompaniment, with a slow and deliberate melodic development, gradually developing an accelerating rhythmic pulse. Apart from obvious differences in the form of the musical presentation, one may notice a wealth of micro-tonal ornamentations that move between or around the tones that are typical for Dhrupad. The composition is sung to the rhythmic accompaniment of a pakhavaj and not tabla as in Khyal (khyal is the modern genre of classical singing in North India). .
