NCERT Books Class 9 Arts: What’s Inside the Madhurima Textbook

This is the NCERT Books Class 9 Arts page for the official Madhurima textbook: all 17 chapters are in the PDF table just below, and every file is NCERT’s own, hosted on ncert.nic.in. What you download here is the same edition a school or an examination draws from.

The PDF alone does not tell you what is inside the book. This page adds what the directory holds: the named topics, activities, figures and question counts for each of the 17 chapters, so you know which chapter answers your question before you open a single file.

Download the NCERT Books Class 9 Arts PDFs

The 17 chapter files below are the official NCERT PDFs, published by NCERT and hosted on the authoritative NCERT site, ncert.nic.in — the same source a school, a library or an examination draws from. Each row gives the chapter number, its title, its printed page span and a direct link to the PDF, with no third-party copy in between.

The first chapter file, iemr101.pdf, is the chapter this book opens with — History of Arts, the longest chapter at 38 pages — and it comes from the same official source as every link in the table below.

The book, measured

Three numbers sum up this book before you read a chapter:

• 17 chapters with verified official PDFs, in the table above.
• 223 printed pages across those 17 chapters.
• 74 hands-on activities — with no end-of-chapter exercise blocks, the activities are the work.
• 240 verified numbered figures indexed from the textbook.
• Only Chapter 3 prints review questions — just 2 of them — so this is an activity-based book, not an exercise-based one.
• Chapters 14 to 17 together print only 34 figures, which makes the visual arts unit text- and technique-led rather than picture-led.

None of the 17 chapters uses numbered syllabus-style section headings; the learning is organised around activities, topic sub-headings and figures instead.

What’s inside each chapter

The directory below is an index of the book, not the CBSE syllabus. It counts what is actually in the official PDFs: a section is one of NCERT’s own numbered headings, a figure is a numbered figure indexed from the textbook, and a question is an end-of-chapter exercise.

The book has almost no end-of-chapter questions because the work happens in activities instead.

One compact map before the chapter-by-chapter notes: the book groups its 17 chapters by art form as follows.

If you arrived with a specific question: stage lighting and sound equipment are in Chapter 4, abhinaya is broken into its parts in Chapter 11, and the Rāmāyaṇa across Indian and Southeast Asian dance traditions is Chapter 12.

Chapter 1: History of Arts (pp. 1-38)

This opening chapter anchors everything else. It recalls the sculpted reliefs of the Sanchi stūpa from the Grade 7 Social Science textbook Exploring Society: India and Beyond.

From there the chapter carries one big idea: the arts pass culture across time — from Bhimbetka’s rock paintings and Harappan seals to Sanchi, Ajanta, temple sculpture and living traditions such as Warli painting and shadow puppetry.

1. Introduction to the History of Arts
2. Our Cultural Heritage
3. Tangible and intangible cultural heritage
4. Let us explore
5. Purpose of the Arts
6. Discussion circle
7. Śhruti, Smṛiti, and Timeless Traditions
8. The earliest period (50,000 BCE onwards)
9. Related developments in global art
10. Activity 1.1

With 38 pages, 10 activities and 58 of the book’s 240 verified figures, Chapter 1 is the longest and most image-heavy chapter — a visual history you can revise from the pictures alone.

Chapter 2: Theatre (12 pages)

For any student about to stage a play: the chapter recalls the Nātyashāstra and the navarasa (the nine emotions) first met in Chapter 1, then gets a theatre group moving. You keep a theatre journal, form a team, design a logo and find a story to perform.

1. A Journal of My Theatre Journey
2. Key points to include in your journal
3. 2 The Stage Is Yours
4. Revisiting the Basics with Vidūṣhaka
5. Let us recall
6. Form Your Theatre Team
7. Design a logo
8. Activity 2.1
9. Logo artwork
10. Finding Your Story

At 12 pages, 4 activities and 7 figures, this is a short, practical starter chapter.

Chapter 3: Symbols and Metaphors on Stage (pp. 51-61)

This is the chapter that turns a plain performance into layered storytelling. Symbolism and metaphor let a stage say what words cannot — through colour, music, costumes, make-up, sets, props and light, each treated as a section of its own.

1. Activity 3.1
2. Beyond words
3. Symbolism and Metaphors in Theatre
4. Symbolism Using Colour
5. Scene work
6. Symbolism Using Music
7. Symbolism Using Costumes
8. Symbolism Using Make-up
9. Symbolism in Sets and Props
10. Symbolism Using Light

It runs 11 pages with 3 activities and 12 figures, and it is the only chapter in the book with review questions — 2 of them.

Chapter 4: Creativity in Light and Sound (pp. 62-71)

The technical theatre chapter — the one to open before you design any light or sound for a show. It explains the objectives of stage lighting, then names the equipment you actually use: PARs (PARcans), Fresnel, PC and profile spotlights, gobo and the light console, followed by microphones, speakers and sound consoles.

1. Lighting: How It All Started
2. Objectives of stage lighting
3. Stage lighting equipment
4. PARs (PARcans)
5. Profile (spotlight)
6. Activity 4.1
7. Making a simple spotlight and gobo
8. Materials (per group)
9. Making a spotlight
10. Making a simple gobo

10 pages, 2 activities, 22 figures — the most equipment-focused chapter in the book, illustrated mainly with photographs of the gear itself.

Chapter 5: From Vision to Performance: Direction and Acting (pp. 72-86)

This chapter follows the director’s route from script to stage. You start with the role of the director, move through script work, visualisation, blocking, stage balance, movement and rehearsals, and close with acting approaches such as Teyyam, Bhūta-kola and method acting.

1. Visualise this scenario in your mind
2. Role of the Director
3. The Process — From Micro to Macro
4. Script work
5. Visualisation and scene building
6. Speaking, Moving, and Blocking
7. Stage balance and composition
8. Movement on stage
9. Consolidating all departments
10. Polishing, run-throughs, and stage rehearsals

15 pages, 3 activities, 15 figures — the chapter for anyone directing or performing.

Chapter 7: Music (pp. 87-102)

The chapter builds on the active listening skills introduced in Grade 7 — the more music you listen to carefully, the more you hear. It maps the forms, styles and genres of Indian music, sets up a music journal, and looks at regional instruments and figures such as Kumar Gandharva.

1. 6 Music and Us
2. Forms and Styles of Music
3. Learning by listening
4. Let us recall
5. Activity 6.1
6. My music journal
7. Listening to various genres
8. Identify the genre of music
9. Discussion circle
10. Let us explore

16 pages, 7 activities and 17 figures — the most activity-heavy of the music chapters.

Chapter 7: The Science of Music (pp. 103-110)

Where music meets physics and biology. The chapter explains why a stretched string vibrates, how instruments work, the Indian concepts of sound, and how the human voice produces notes — and it teaches through doing: you build a stringed instrument model and run vocal warm-ups.

1. The Science of Sound
2. Activity 7.1
3. Making a stringed instrument model
4. Materials
5. Steps
6. Connecting to musical instruments
7. The concepts of sound in India
8. Biology of the Human Voice
9. Experiencing the human vocal system
10. Vocal warm-ups

8 pages, 6 activities, 17 figures — the highest activity density in the book.

Chapter 8: Rāga and Tāla (pp. 111-126)

The theory chapter for Indian classical music. It opens by fixing the three fundamental terms — nāda (musical sound), śhruti (a sound heard as distinct) and svara (a note; seven in Indian music) — then builds the classification systems: the Hindustani thāṭ system, the Carnatic 72 Meḷakartā system, and Tānsen and the rāga of fire.

1. Let us recall
2. Classification based on number of svaras
3. Activity 8.1
4. Tānsen and the rāga of fire
5. Discussion circle
6. Classification based on the svara-sthānas
7. Carnatic 72 Meḷakartā System
8. Janaka Janya Rāgas
9. Hindustani Thāṭ System
10. Carnatic Music — Rāga Śhaṅkarābharaṇam

16 pages and 6 activities, but only 4 figures — the learning sits in the notation and classification systems, so revision here means reading the systems rather than scanning pictures.

Chapter 9: Music Travels Around the World (pp. 127-134)

Music as a migrant. The chapter follows chutney music, Bhangra in the United Kingdom and Siddi Dhamal, then groups instruments into families — the lute family and the flute family, from bansuri to shakuhachi.

1. Music and Migration
2. Chutney music
3. Listening selections
4. Bhangra in the United Kingdom
5. Activity 9.1
6. Migration in your family
7. Families of Musical Instruments
8. The lute family
9. The flute family
10. Discovering families

8 pages, 2 activities, 7 figures — a short chapter that widens the musical frame beyond India.

Chapter 10: Dance (pp. 135-153)

A revisiting chapter: it returns to body postures (sthāna), lower-limb movements (chārī and gati) and jumps and spins (utplavana and bhramarī), then opens outward to twentieth-century dancers and regional forms — Yakṣhagāna, Kathakali make-up, Purulia Chhau and Koli.

1. In Grade 9 Dance, students will
2. The dance classroom needs
3. Dance pedagogy would need to
4. 10 Components of Dance
5. Activity 10.1
6. Explore geometry through your body
7. Visual composition in dance: explore shapes and emotions
8. Body in Motion: Revisiting the Basics of Dance
9. Revisiting body movements in dance
10. Let us recall

19 pages, 5 activities, 32 figures — the visually richest chapter of the book.

Chapter 11: Dance as Visual Storytelling (pp. 154-159)

Abhinaya, the art of storytelling in dance, is broken into its parts: āṅgika (body), vāchika (voice) and āhārya (costume and appearance). The chapter shows how stories such as the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa are told through pose, voice, song and costume.

1. Āṅgika Abhinaya
2. Activity 11.1
3. Strike a sculpturesque pose
4. Vāchika Abhinaya
5. Experience dance through sound, song, and silence
6. Discussion circle
7. It’s time to contemplate!
8. Āhārya Abhinaya
9. Spot the āhārya and identify the dance

6 pages, 3 activities, 8 figures — the shortest chapter in the book and a focused one.

Chapter 12: Cultural Connections Through Dance (pp. 160-168)

Dance as a response to every situation — harvest, devotion, celebration. The chapter then traces one story, the Rāmāyaṇa, across Indian and Southeast Asian renditions, from Kalakshetra to the Khon of Thailand and the Reamker of Cambodia.

1. A Dance for Every Situation
2. Activity 12.1
3. Journalling your own dance culture
4. Become a part of your chosen dance culture
5. Cross-cultural collaboration in dance
6. Dance voices — be a dance podcaster/interviewer
7. One Story, Many Renditions
8. A creative Rāmāyaṇa presentation

9 pages, 5 activities, 13 figures — the chapter for comparing how different cultures share one story.

Chapter 13: Dance Choreography (pp. 169-178)

Making your own dance. The chapter introduces choreography through movement patterns, spatial usage and stage mapping, drawing on Naga Hornbill dances, Mallakhamba, Karagāṭṭam and Manjushree Chaki Sarkar’s Nava Nritya — then walks you through planning and creating your own piece.

1. Choreography and Collaboration
2. Movement patterns in choreography
3. Let us explore
4. Nava Nritya of Manjushree Chaki Sarkar
5. Spatial usage in choreography
6. Activity 13.1
7. Plan a choreography
8. Creating your choreography
9. Well-being discussion circle

10 pages, 4 activities, 11 figures — the chapter to work through before you stage any group piece.

Chapter 14: Exploring the Fundamentals of Visual Arts (pp. 179-192)

The chapter asks what makes a visual artist. It lists the essential materials and desirable traits, and makes the art journal a working habit — drawing on the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Frida Kahlo, Rabindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose as inspiration.

1. Visual Arts
2. The Visual Arts classroom needs
3. The Visual Arts pedagogy would need to
4. 14 Exploring the Fundamentals of Visual Arts
5. Essentials for a Visual Artist
6. Desirable Traits of a Visual Artist
7. Art Journal
8. Importance of a journal
9. Inspiring examples of visual journalling from history
10. Activity 14.1

14 pages, 4 activities, but only 5 figures — a reading-and-reflection chapter, not an image-led one.

Chapter 15: Mediums and Techniques in Visual Art (pp. 193-207)

What artists actually work in: drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, textile crafts, paper crafts and digital art. The chapter also covers the care, maintenance and responsible storage of materials, and closes on India’s sculptural crafts.

1. Let us recall
2. Talking About Mediums
3. Activity 15.1
4. Care, Maintenance, and Responsible Storage of Materials
5. Source consciously
6. Handle and maintain with care
7. Responsible storage
8. The Sculptural Crafts of India
9. Materials in India’s Sculptural Craft
10. Find out about any two Indian sculptural crafts

15 pages, 7 activities, 13 figures — the most activity-heavy of the visual arts chapters.

Chapter 16: Visual Composition (pp. 208-216)

A five-step method for building a visual composition: ideation, choosing size and format, character sketches, speech balloons and scene composition. Worked examples include ‘There comes Papa’ and ‘Devi’.

1. Discussion circle
2. Activity 16.1
3. Create compositions
4. Step 1. Ideation
5. Step 2. Choosing the size, format, and sequence
6. Step 3. Character sketches
7. Step 4. Speech balloons
8. Step 5. Composition of scenes
9. Option B: Thematic painting
10. Step 4: Make iterations of your compositional layout

9 pages, 1 activity, 11 figures — a method chapter built around one extended activity.

Chapter 17: Branches of Visual Arts (pp. 217-223)

The survey of where visual arts lead: drawing and painting, applied arts and design, heritage crafts, and arts research and management — with guiding questions for choosing a direction and an individual project to close.

1. Activity 17.1
2. Guiding questions
3. Forms of Visual Arts
4. Drawing and painting
5. Some famous artists
6. Applied arts and design disciplines
7. Heritage crafts
8. Arts research and management
9. Interact with visual art professionals
10. Q5. Individual Project

7 pages, 2 activities, 5 figures — a short closing chapter that looks ahead to careers.

Chapter study pages

For focused revision on one chapter at a time, the study-page links below open the chapter you need.

How to use this book

The 17 chapters are near-independent, so you do not have to read the book in order — but there is a sensible way through it, and the activities change how you study.

1. Start with Chapter 1 (History of Arts) for the historical frame; it gives you the timeline every other chapter sits on.
2. For theatre work, use Chapters 2-5, and go to Chapter 4 (Creativity in Light and Sound) whenever you need the equipment list.
3. For music, pair The Science of Music with Rāga and Tāla — the first gives the physics and the voice, the second the theory.
4. For dance, work through Chapters 10-13 in order, because the choreography in Chapter 13 builds on the vocabulary of Chapters 10-12.
5. For visual arts, keep an art journal from Chapter 14 forward — the later visual arts chapters assume the habit.

Treat the 74 activities as the actual assignments of this book, since it has almost no end-of-chapter exercises. And remember: textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official syllabus before deciding what to prepare.

Related resources

This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.

Move around this site from here: browse All NCERT books on the books root, or go to the Class 9 NCERT books hub to see every Class 9 subject in this directory. The Class 9 Arts page collects everything this site holds on this subject.

Sources and data verification

The figures and section titles on this page come from the NCERT Madhurima Class 9 Arts textbook, using the official chapter PDFs on ncert.nic.in linked above.

This listing covers the 17 chapters of that one book and no other arts textbook. It is maintained for the NCERT edition currently published on ncert.nic.in.

NCERT settles textbooks, editions and PDFs; CBSE settles the curriculum, syllabus and examinations. A chapter present in the textbook may not be examinable in every session — the current official syllabus is the authority for that.

Reference: NCERT Class 9 Arts textbook, official edition on ncert.nic.in. Figure captions and section titles quoted from the textbook; page references are to the official PDF.

Questions students ask about the Class 9 Arts NCERT book

How many chapters are in the NCERT Class 9 Arts book?

The NCERT Class 9 Arts book has 17 chapters across 223 printed pages. The chapters run from History of Arts and Theatre through Music and Dance to the Visual Arts, and every one has its own PDF in the table above.

Is the Class 9 Arts NCERT PDF free and official?

Yes — the PDFs are NCERT’s own files, published and hosted on ncert.nic.in, and they are free to download and read. The table above links directly to those official files, so there is no third-party copy in between.

Which chapter explains stage lighting and sound equipment?

Chapter 4, Creativity in Light and Sound (pp. 62-71), explains stage lighting and sound equipment. It covers PARs, Fresnel, PC and profile spotlights, gobo, the light console, microphones, speakers and sound consoles.

Where are rāga and tāla explained in the Class 9 Arts book?

Rāga and tāla are explained in Chapter 8 (pp. 111-126). It defines nāda, śhruti and svara, then covers the Hindustani thāṭ system, the Carnatic 72 Meḷakartā system, janaka-janya rāgas and Tānsen’s rāga of fire.

Why does the Class 9 Arts book have no end-of-chapter exercises?

Because this is an activity-based book: its work happens in 74 hands-on activities spread across the chapters, not in end-of-chapter exercise blocks. Only Chapter 3 prints review questions — 2 of them — so treat the activities as the real assignments.