A Technical Introduction - Raaga Classification

Raga Basics Pg 2        Raaga Classification Pg 2   Raaga Classification          Raaga - Raagini          Jati          Venkatamakhin and Melas          Bhatkhande and Thats

Raaga Classification

Considering the great number of Raagas in use from ancient times, musicologists have tried to classify and group the Raagas in various way. The earliest efforts were to classify them as Raagas (male) and Raaginis (female). While very colorful this method was not practically useful. Venkatamakhin classified the known (and unknown) Raagas of South India into 72 sampoorna Raaga groups called Melas in 17th century. This practically useful (some would say scientific) classification went a long way in making Carnatic music lot more organized and structured, compared to the chaotic state of Hindustani Raaga classification, which relied on the old Raaga-Raagini system until 20th century. Pt. Bhatkhande tried to correct this by classifying the known Raagas in to ten Thats. While this was slightly better, ten thats were simply not enough to satisfactorily classify all the Raagas, with the result that even now a lot of Raagas have been forced uncomfortably (unscientifically ?) into one of the ten Thats.

Raaga - Raagini

Based on the emotional impact (Bhaava) of the Raaga, Raagas were classified into six main Raagas (Male). Each Raaga had five associated Raaginis (or female Raagas). Then there were several Putra Ragas which were classified as the children of the Raaga-Raagini. This classification system also formed the basis of historically important Raagamaala paintings.

(1) Bhairav

Raagini : Bhairavi, Bilawali, Punyaki, Bangli, Aslekhi
Putra Raaga : Pancham, Harakh, Disakh, Bangal, Madhu, Madhava, Lalit, Bilaval


(2) Malkaus


Raagini : Gaundkari, Devagandhari, Gandhari, Seehute, Dhanasri
Putra Raaga : Maru, Mustang, Mewara, Parbal, Chand, Khokhat, Bhora, Nad


(3) Hindol


Raagini : Telangi, Devkari, Basanti, Sindhoori, Aheeri
Putra Raaga : Surmanand, Bhasker, Chandra-Bimb, Mangalan, Ban, Binoda, Basant, Kamoda


(4) Deepak


Raagini : Kachheli, Patmanjari, Todi, Kamodi, Gujri
Putra Raaga : Kaalanka, Kuntal, Rama, Kamal, Kusum, Champak, Gaura, Kanra


(5) Sri


Raagini : Bairavi, Karnati, Gauri, Asavari, Sindhavi
Putra Raaga : Salu, Sarag, Sagra, Gaund, Gambhir, Gund, Kumbh, Hamir


(6) Megh


Raagini : Sorath, Gaundi-Malari, Asa, Gunguni, Sooho
Putra Raaga : Biradhar, Gajdhar, Kedara, Jablidhar, Nut, Jaldhara, Sankar, Syama

Jati

Another popular way to describe and classify a Raaga is based on the number of notes it uses in Aarohana and Avarohana. - Sampooran (sampoorna) - 7 notes - Shaudva - 6 notes - Audava - 5 notes There can be many combinations of these, since Raagas use different number of notes in Aarohana and Avarohana.

• Sampooran / Sampooran: Ragas in this classification will have all the seven notes in the ascending as well as descending movements.
• Sampooran / Shaudava: Ragas in this Jati will have seven notes while ascending and six notes while descending.
• Sampooran / Audava: Ragas in this category will have seven notes while ascending and only five notes while descending.
• Shaudava / Sampooran: Six note ascending and seven descending. Khamaj
• Shaudava / Shaudava: Six notes ascending six descending.
• Shaudava / Audava: Six ascending and five descending.
• Audava / Sampooran: Five ascending and seven descending. Asavari
• Audava / Audava: Five ascending and five descending.
• Audava / Shaudava: Five ascending and six descending.

Venkatamakhin and Melas

Venkatamakhin's (link - 1635) classification of Raagas and its subsequent development and support by the trinity has had a decisive role in shaping Carnatic Music. Classification of Raagas was based on the scale used by a Raaga and thus, Venkatamakhin was in effect classifying various scales, called Melas. His system not only classified known Raagas but also introduced several new ones, based on the possibilities that the system of classification he used, threw up. All melas are full scales, having 7 notes.

Every Mela has both Sa, the reference and Pa, the secondary reference. Notes, Re, Ga, Dha and Ni are of 3 varieties each. For a mela, one of the 3 types of each of the 4 notes need to be picked up. This gives us 4x3x3=36 possible combinations. Since Ma can be of 2 types we get a total of 36x2=72 Melas.

Sa Re - - Ga Ma Pa Dha - - Ni Sa
Sa - Re - Ga Ma Pa - Dha - Ni Sa
Sa - Re Ga - Ma Pa - Dha Ni - Sa
Sa Re - Ga - Ma Pa Dha - Ni - Sa
Sa Re Ga - - Ma Pa Dha Ni - - Sa
Sa - - Re Ga Ma Pa - - Dha Ni Sa

If we were to use, only two variants of Re, Ga, Dha and Ni, we would not be able to get the last two combinations. This is the reason for three variants of these notes. For eg. the last two can also be written as,

Sa Re Re - - Ma Pa Dha Dha - - Sa
Sa - - Ga Ga Ma Pa - - Ni Ni Sa

since R2=G1, R3=G2, D2=N1 and D3=N2. But, we can't denote a scale as having two variants of the same note, necessitating invention of overlapping 3 variants of these notes. Since, there were existing Raagas with these scales, Venkatamakhin had to invent three variants of these notes. Since Hindustani music uses natural scale only, no Raagas with these scales are to be found in Hindustani.

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