The two major systems of Indian classical music, Hindustani of the North and Carnatic of the South, has a great diversity of ragas. By examining the possibilites of the notes alone could yield thousands of ragas. The factor of pakkad, aroha, and avaroha mentioned in a previous post increase the number of ragas existing, as two "scales" may have a totally different flow. But in looking at these ragas, it is important to know how to classify them. There have been many attempts to sort them properly, each method having some degree of success with some degrees of shortbacks.
In examining the history of ragas, we must know that the raga came first. Ragas existed as far back as the Vedic times. Many theories interpret the origin of the ragas through the Vedic perspective. Many personalities in Vedic literature is associated with musical instruments: Sarasvati with the vina (tantra vadya), Lord Krishna with the flute (susira vadya), Lord Balarama with the mridangam (avanadha vadya), and celestial musicians known as gandharvas and Lord Siva and His damaru with miscellaneous percussive instruments made of metal (ghana vadya). It is said that the first raga ever created was "Raga Bhairava."
S G m P G m (N)d (N)d N S'; S' N S (N)d d P G m P G m (G)r S.
This raga pleased Lord Siva and was known as the "adi-raga." If you listen to many bhajans and devotional music dedicated to Lord Siva, Sakti, or Ganga, then this raga Bhairava is commonly used. Another raga associated with Lord Siva is Malkauns. It is said that Parvati, Siva's consort, sang this raga to Lord Siva to please Him, when He was angry. Such are some examples of ragas in Vedic literature.
Other musicians dispute that Bhairava was really the "adi raga." Some say that the first set of notes were the seven "suddha swars" as Western musicians know as the "natural scale." If you transpose Sa seven time through each note, you get seven ragas known as Suddha Ragas. THrough each raga, a vikrta swar would eminate. Hence, our five vikrta swars are created completing the saptak given seven ragas total to start off with.
Despite speculation of how they formed, it is accepted by all that ragas are given in abudance. Now it is important to classify them to make it understandable to study them.
It was said that ragas had genders. Male ragas were "ragas" and female ragas were "raginis." The children of ragas and raginis yielded "raga putras." or derived ragas. There were thirty six such ragas that were of this method. However, this had no "scientific basis" so a very small percentage of musicians accepted this theory.
Nex theory, used to classify ragas was similar to the previous method of raga-ragini-raga putra. This is called janaka ragas. They are six ragas used to decrease the six seasons, as defined in Vedic literature. These representative ragas are considered the original ragas which other ragas come from.
The six janaka ragas are:
Bhairava, Malkauns, Hindol, Sri, Dipaka, and Megha.
Few of the names imply the seasons. Raga Hindol (swing) implies the spring season, Raga Dipaka (fire) is the summer. Once the sun scorches the soul so much, we need a Raga Megha (thundercloud) to exintguish the fire from our hearts through a monsoon.
Like the raga-ragini system, the janaka ragas were not accepted by all musicians, as there was very little scientific basis.
Another aesthetic method musicians did was to place ragas by time it was sung. Most ragas were said to be sung at a certain time of day. The day was divided into eight sections of approximately three hours each. These sections were known as a "prahar." Even though there were much better trends with identify ragas through time (i.e. most morning ragas use shudhda ma, komal re, and komal dha), it still was not satisfying to many.
The jati of the raga was the next classification tool. The "jati" is the "class" of the raga based on the number of notes its has. A raga with five notes is known as the "audava" raga. A raga with six notes is known as as a "sadava" raga. And a raga with all seven notes is the "sampurna (full)" raga. To determine the jati, look at the number of notes in the aroha and the avaroha. If a raga has six notes in the aroha and seven in the avaroha, the jati of the raga would be "sadava-sampurna." This was satisfying for many musicians, as they could classify ragas based on something definite. However, the members of the audava-audava class, for instance, will have ragas which have little or no similarity at all. The jati classification was a great tool, but not something to fall back on.
It is at this point in the early 20th century, Vishnu Narayn Bhatkhande decided to examine the ragas in a more holistic yet detailed point of view. He decided that in looking at most ragas, there are ten representative scales based on the general ragas used in North Indian music. The ten representative scales derived from ragas are known as "Thaats."
There are ten thaats. Bilawal (all shuddha notes), Bhairava (komal re, komal dha), Bhairavi (komal thaat, all notes changeable notes are in flat/lower form), Kafi (komal ga, komal ni), Yaman (tivra thaat, all notes are in the higher form: all shuddha swars with tivra Ma: no shuddha ma), Marwa (komal re, tivra Ma), Purvi (komal re, komal dha, tivra Ma), Todi (komal re, komal ga, Tivra Ma, komal dha), Khamaja (komal ni), Asavari (komal ga, komal dha, komal ni).
Remember: these are scales: thaats are NOT ragas are not performed.
For instance Raga Darbari (S R g m P d n S'; S' d n P m P n g m R S) is in Asavari thaat as Asavari Thaat's scale is S R g m P d n S.
It was liked by a great majority of musicians. It became the most accepted method. However, there were shortcomings one could not get by.
Raga Gunakri is S r m P d S', S' d P m r S. It is known as Bhairava Thaat. However, it could most certainly be Bhairavi going strictly by the scales. Strictly speaking, it creates ambiguity as one does not know if komal ga or shuddha ga would have been there. Same thing with komal or shuddha ni. It can be understood, however, that the flow that Raga Gunakri has (m P d P m (m)r S) is very much similar to that of Raga Bhairava. Hence, it's in the Bhairava Thaat.
With this logic using aesthetics, it is accepted that raga Ahir Bhairava (scale: S r G m P D n S') is in the Bhairava Thaat for the same reason Gunakri is, even though shuddha Dha and komal ni are used. Even something odd-ball like Raga Nat-Bhairava (S R G m P d N S') is Bhairava because of how the raga is "like."
With sampurna ragas like Kirwani and Charukesi, they have no real thaat to fall in. Hence they are "thaat-less" ragas are they cannot fit into any. Bhatkhande later realized of this shortcoming.
Mathematically, it is possibly to have 32 scales accepted in North Indian music. Yet, musicians will do anything and use any valid proof to fit the immense number of ragas coming from thirty-two possibilities down to ten thaats.
We will explore South Indian music later today. Enjoy!
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