The music of India is as diverse as its many cultures. India has over a billion people and hundreds of dialects and languages spread across the seventh largest country in the world, but there is still an undeniable “sound” that makes Indian music unmistakable. The music of India includes Indian classical music, multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, and, most recently, rock music. The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the oldest Hindu scriptures, the Vedas. The Samaveda is said to have laid the foundation for Indian music, and consists mainly of hymns of Rigveda, set to melodies that would be sung using three to seven musical notes during Vedic sacrifices. Indian classical music was regarded as a means of self-realization and salvation, rather than simply a means of self-expression. The two main traditions of Indian classical music, Carnatic, found predominantly in the peninsular regions of India, and Hindustani, found in the northern and central parts, began to diverge the two traditions began to diverge from a common musical root around the thirteenth century, with the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in the north. Hindustani music is considered to have absorbed Persian and Turkic features, introduced by musicians from Persia and Central Asia.