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Raga - The soul of classical music

There is a saying in Sanskrit - "Ranjayathi iti Ragah" - which means, "that which colours the mind is a raga." For a raga to truly colour the mind of the listener, its effect must be created not only through the notes and the embellishments, but also by the presentation of the speific emotion or mood characteristic of each raga. Thus through rich melodies in our music, every human emotion, every subtle feeling in man and nature can be musically expressed and experienced.

The combination of several notes woven into a composition in a way which is pleasing to the ear is called a Raga. Each raga creates an atmosphere which is associated with feelings and sentiments. Any stray combination of notes cannot be called a Raga.

Raga is the basis of classical music. A raga is based on the principle of a combination of notes selected out the 22 note intervals of the octave. A performer with sufficient training and knowledge alone can create the desired emotions, through the combination of shrutis and notes.There are a limited number of ragas in Hindustani music; as the use of a ``KING" note and a ``QUEEN" note restricts to a great extent, the creation of new ragas. The raga forms the backbone of Indian music, and the laws laid down for the ragas have to be carefully observed to preserve and safeguard their integrity. The following points are required in the construction of a Raga --

1. Thaats or sequence of notes,

2. Jaatis or classification

3. ``King" and ``Queen" relation of the notes, i.e. Vadi and Samvadi

4. The Ascent and Descent of the rag, i.e. Aroha and Avaroha

5. Important cluster of notes

6. Pitch

7. Speed.

The performing arts in India - music, dance,drama, and pooetry - are based on the concept of Nava Rasa , or the "nine sentiments." Literally, rasa means "juice" or "extract" but here in this context, we take it to mean "emotion" or "sentiment." The acknowledged order of these sentiments is as follows: Shringara (romantic and erotic): Hasya (humorous): Karuna (pathetic): Raudra (anger): Veera (heroic): Bhayanaka (fearful): Vibhatsa (disgustful): Adbhuta (amazement): Shanta (peaceful).

Every Raga is derived from some Thaat or Scale.

· Ragas are placed in three categories

• Odava or pentatonic, a composition of five notes,

• Shadava or hexatonic, a composition of six notes,

• Sampoorna or heptatonic, a composition of seven notes,

• Every Raga must have at least five notes, starting at Sa, one principal note, a second important note and a few helping notes.

• The principal note, ``KING" is the note on which the raga is built. It is emphasized in various ways, such as stopping for some time on the note, or stressing it. The second important note or the ``queen" corresponds to the ``King" as the fourth or fifth note in relation to it.

• The ascent and descent of the notes in every raga is very important. Some ragas in the same scale differ in ascent and descent.

• In every raga, there is an important cluster of notes by which the raga is identified.

• There are certain ragas which move in a certain pitch and if the pitch is changed, the raga fails to produce the mood and sentiment peculiar to it.

• The speed is divided into three parts : Vilambit(slow), Madhya(Medium) and Drut(fast).

Another aspect of the ragas is the appropriate distribution in time during the 24 hours of the day for its performance, i.e. the time of the day denotes the raga sung a particular time. Ragas are also allotted a particular time space in the cycle of the day. These are divided into four types --

1. Sandi-prakash ragas or twilight ragas when the notes re and dha are used -- such as Raag Marwa, Purvi.

2. Midday and Midnight ragas which include the notes ga and ni(komal).

3. Ragas for the first quarter of the morning and night which include the notes re, ga, dha and ni(komal).

4. For the last quarter of the day and night, the reagas include the notes sa, ma and pa.

All the ragas are divided into two groups -- Poorva Ragas and Uttar Ragas. The Poorva Ragas are sung between 12 noon and 12 midnight. The Uttar Ragas are sung between 12 midnight and 12 noon. The variations on the dominant or ``King" note help a person to find out why certain ragas are being sung at certain times. This raga classification is about 500 years old and has been adopted by Pandit V. N. Bhatkhande in his textbooks on Hindustani music.

The beauty of the raga will not be marred by the time of the day it is sung. It is the psychological association with the time that goes with the mood of the raga. The object of a raga is to express a certain emotional mood and sentiment without any reference to time and season. For a student of classical music, this classification may give an idea as to how to base his reasons for the traditional usage of ragas.

Another division of ragas is the classification of ragas under six principal ragas -- Hindol, Deepak, Megh, Shree and Maulkauns. From these six ragas, other ragas are derived. The first derivatives of the ragas are called raginis, and each of the six ragas have five raginis under them. Further derivatives from these ragas and raginis resulted in attaching to each principal raga 16 secondary derivatives known as upa-ragas and upa-raginis.

All the ragas are supposed to have been derived from their thaats. Every raga has a fixed number of komal(soft) or teevra(sharp) notes, from which the thaat can be recognised. In other words, a certain arrangement of the 7 notes with the change of shuddha, komal and teevra is called a thaat. There are several opinions in this matter. According to Pandit V.N. Bhatkhande, the 10 thaats used to classify the ragas are --

1. Bilaval -- with all shuddh or natural notes.

2. Khamaj -- with the ni note as komal.

3. Kafi -- with the ga and ni notes as komal.

4. Asavari -- with the ga, dha and ni notes as komal.

5. Bhairavi -- with the re, ga, dha and ni notes as komal.

6. Bhairav -- with the re and dha notes as komal.

7. Poorvi -- with the re and dha notes as komal and the ma note as teevra.

8. Todi -- with the re, ga and dha notes as komal and the ma note as teevra.

9. Marwa -- with the re note as komal and the ma note as teevra.

10. Yaman -- with the ma note as teevra only.


Hindusthani Ragas

The Seven Natural (Complete)"Swaras" or Tones are: Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni

Notice the following terms related to the notes !!!

* All upper case letters refer to the "Shuddha Swaras" or natural tones.
Example,R G D N.
* All lower case letters refer to the "Komal Swaras". Example, r g d n.
* For 'Ma', m refers to the natural one and M refers to the 'Tivra or Kori Ma'.
* The upper octave notes are suffixed by the ' sign. Example, S' R' G' m' P' D' N'.
* The lower octave notes are prefixed by the ' sign. Example, 'S 'N 'D 'P 'm 'G 'R.
* Thaat can be defined as the root or parent raga from which another raga (child) can be derived. Example, 'Jaunpuri' derived from 'Asavari'. There are about 10 Thaats: Asavari, Bhairav, Bhairavi, Bilawal, Kafi, Kalyan, Khamaj, Marwa, Purvi, Todi.
* Aarohana is the ascending note pattern and Avarohana is the descending note pattern