In the Indian
Classical Music,
Raga is the basis of melody and
Tala is the basis of rhythm.
Each melodic structure of Raga has
something akin to a distinct
personality subject and to a
prevailing mood.
Ragas involve
several important elements.
The
first element is sound --
metaphysical and physical, which is
referred to as
nada. Nada is the
manifestation of the first of the
five elements of creation--the
element of space. There are two
types of nada,
anahata nada
or un-struck sound and
ahata nada
or struck sound. The next element of
raga is
pitch,
relegated into
swara
(whole and half tones), and
sruti
(microtones). Raga also involves the
production of emotional effects in
the performer and listener, which
are known as
rasa.
The aim of raga is to elicit
emotional and psychological
responses from the listener. The
production of these specific
responses can be understood by
exploring the concept of
rasa.
Rasa has been referred to as
"aesthetic delight" and is free from
the limitations of personal
feelings. There are nine
rasas:
Love (Shringar),
Humour (Hasya),
Pathos (Karuna), Anger (Rudra),
Heroism (Vir),
Terror (Bhayanaka),
Disgust (Veebhatsa)
and Wonder (Abdhuta)[i].
Raga is the basis of classical
music. Raga is neither a scale, nor
a mode. It is based on the principle
of a combination of notes selected
out the 22 note intervals of the
octave. There are 72
'melas', or parent scales, on
which Ragas are based. Raga has its
own principal mood such as
tranquility, devotion, eroticism,
loneliness, pathos and heroism. Each Raga is associated, according to its mood, with a
particular time of the day, night or
a season. A performer with
sufficient training and knowledge
alone can create the desired
emotions, through the combination of
shrutis and notes. Every Raga is
derived from some
Thaat or Scale.
Improvisation is an essential
feature of Indian music, depending
upon the imagination and the
creativity of an artist. A great
artist can communicate and instill
in his listener the mood of the
Raga.
Ragas are placed in three
categories: (a)
Odava or pentatonic, a
composition of five notes, (b)
Shadava or hexatonic, a
composition of six notes and (c)
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. The speed of a raga 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 type of the raga
to be sung. Based on this, the ragas
are divided into four types:
Sandi-prakash ragas or twilight ragas, Midday and Midnight ragas,
Ragas for the first quarter of the
morning and night and Ragas for the
last quarter of the day and night.
All the ragas are divided into two
broad groups --
Poor Ragas and
Uttar Ragas. The
Poor Ragas are sung between 12 noon and 12 midnight. The
Uttar Ragas are sung between 12
midnight and 12 Noon. The
Santa Makananda mentions "one
who sings knowing the proper time
remains happy. By singing ragas at
the wrong time one ill-treats them.
Listening to them, one becomes
impoverished and sees the length of
one's life reduced."
Another division of ragas is the
classification of ragas under six
principal ragas --
Hindol, Deepak, Megh, Shree and
Maulkauns. Other ragas are
derived from these six ragas. The
first derivatives of the ragas are
called
raginis, and each of the six
ragas has five
raginis under them. 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 recognized.
Ragas in the Carnatic music fall
into two categories, the base or
melakarta ragas and the derived
or
janya ragas. The 16
swaras form the basis for the
melakarta scheme. Melakarta
ragas have a formal structure and
follow a fairly rigid scheme of
scientific organization whereas the
janya ragas are rooted in usage and are liable to evolve with the
music. In fact many
janya ragas change their
character over time. Janya ragas are
derived from the
melakarta ragas through various
means. The simplest way to generate
a
janya raga is to leave out one
or more of the
swaras in the
arohanam and/or
avarohanam. Contemporary
Carnatic music is based on a system
of 72
melakarta ragas. These 'creator'
ragas are also called
janaka ragas and thai
(mother) ragas. The current system
can be traced to the works of
Venkatamakhi (17th
century AD) who appears to be the
first to use the 72
melakartas. Earlier works
generally contain fewer
melakartas and most have flaws
in their organisation. At that time,
many of Venkatamakhi's
melakartas were unknown and were
not assigned names. Later, all 72
were given names and this system is
sometimes referred to as the
Kanakaambari - Phenadhyuthi system
after the names of the first two
melakartas in it. Muthuswamy Dikshithar's compositions are generally
based on the raga names and
lakshanams (definitions) in this
system while Thyagaraja used a later
scheme devised by Govindacharya in
the late 18th century. There is an
important feature to the ragas
in Carnatic music, namely the
appropriate gamakams
(microtones) associated with many
ragas. Gamakams
are of ten types and their mastery
is a must for effective portrayal of
certain ragas.
