Raaga Classification - Page 2

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Venkatamakhin and Melas (contd.)

Venkatamakhin's grandson Muddu Venkatamakhi gave names to all the Melas. This naming convention was used by Thyagaraja and has come to be accepted as the current naming convention. Muddu Venkatamakhi used a simple system where the first two letters of the Raga denoted the Mela number. He used a numbering scheme for the Indian alphabet that was already prevalent called Katapayadi Samkhya. He took the mela number and found a corresponding letter for each number. The letters were reversed and a name made out of those two consonants. Note that only two letters denote 0, n and ~n. He couldn't have possibly made nine names starting with these letter to denote Melas 1 to 9. This was possibly the reason for reversing the letters before making up the names.

Series	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
Kaadinava	Ka	Kha	Ga	Gha	.Na	Cha	Chha	Ja	Jha	~Na
Taadinava	Ta	Tta	Da	Dda	Na	Tha	Thha	Dha	Dhha	Na
Paadipancha	Pa	Pha	Ba	Bha	Ma
Yaadyashta	Ya	Ra	La	Va	Sha	Shha	Sa	Ha

For eg. 1st mela was called Kanakaangi (ka=1, na=0). The eighth was called hanumaTodi (ha=8, nu=0). There are some Melas for which the names do not easily yield the mela number since the first two letters are not simple consonants, but complex (vyanjana). In a complex letter, where there are two consonants, it is not clear which one should be picked. For eg. in Ratnangi we should use Ra(2) and the second half-letter Na(0) to get Mela 02. But in Divyamani, we should use Di(8) and first half-letter Va(4) to get Mela 48. So, in these cases the naming is not consistent. The rest of the letters of the Mela name usually does not have any significance. In some cases, where there was already a well known Raaga in that scale, first two letters according to the scheme were used and these two were added to the well known Raaga to make the mela name. For eg. DheeraShankarabhara was used for 29th Mela. Deera indicated 29 and Shankarabharanam was the well known existing sampoorna raaga using that scale (S R2 G3 M1 P D2 N3 S').

Among the trinity, Thyagaraj completely followed the scheme, where as Muthuswami Dikshitar didn't. But since Thyagaraja Shishya Parampara has been more influential, the naming scheme has been mostly accepted in carnatic music. Venkatamakhin not only classified the known Raagas but his system allowed him to invent a lot of new Raga scales. Thyagaraja and other composers composed in several of these new scales and now they have emerged as popular new Raagas.

The 72 Melas or Melakarthas, are what are called Janaka Raagas (i.e. Parent scales). All the Raagas which use a subset of a scale are classified under that mela as Janya Raaga (i.e. child scale). Janya Raagas are asampoorna Raagas, using fewer than seven notes. For eg. Hamsadhwani comes under Mela 29 since it uses the same scale as DheeraShankarabharana except for M1 and D2 (S R2 G3 P N3 S'). Behag (taken from Hindustani) also belongs to the same mela and drops R2 in Aarohana (S G3 M1 P N3 D2 N3 S'). Hundreds of Janya raagas are known and used in Carnatic. A comprehensive list is given here.

That

Chaturpandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860-1936) ( link ) tried to classify Hindustani Raagas a full 270 years after Venkatamakhin, but was unable to do so satisfactorily. He toured important centers of Carnatic music like Tanjavur, Madras and Mysore and studied the Melakartha scheme of Venkatamakhin. It was clear that he could not directly use the Mela system. Of the six combinations given below, Hindustani does not allow the bottom two combinations in either lower tetrachord or upper tetrachord, since, Hindustani does not use both Gandharas (komal ga and shudh Ga) without using even one variety of Re or both Rishabs (komal re and shudh Re) without using one variety of Ga etc. Using 4 combinations in each tetrachord would have given 4x4x2=32 Melas (or Thats, to use a Hindi word).

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 Re - - ma Pa dha Dha - - Sa (not possible in Hindustani)
Sa - - ga Ga ma Pa - - ni Ni Sa (not possible in Hindustani)

But, Bhatkhande decided to not use this scheme, after seriously considering it. One reason was that for some of the scales, there were no existing Raagas. Instead of using all the Melas for which Raagas existed, for ease of memorization, Bhatkhande came up with a ten That (meaning framework) system. These were like the Genera and each Raaga classified under it was a species belonging to the Genera (plural of Genus, as used in biology). Each of the thats were named after the most famous Raaga using that scale. Incidentally, six of the thats are ancient scales got through Moorchana.

That	Scale	Characteristics
Bilaval	S R G m P D N S'	All shudh or natural notes
Khamaj	S R G m P D n S'	Ni note as komal
Kafi	S R g m P D n S'	Ga and Ni notes as komal
Asavari	S R g m P g n S'	Ga, Dha and Ni notes as komal
Bhairavi	S r g m P d n S'	Re, Ga, Dha and Ni notes as komal
Bhairav	S r G m P d N S'	Re and Dha notes as komal
Poorvi	S r G M P d N S'	Re and Dha notes as komal and the Ma note as teevra
Todi	S r g M P d N S'	Re, Ga and Dha notes as komal and the Ma note as teevra
Marwa	S r G M P D N S'	Re note as komal and the Na note as teevra
Yaman	S R G M P D N S'	Ma note as teevra only

There were several well known Raagas which do not fit any of these scales, but were subjectively grouped under one of the thats by Pt. Bhatkhande. For this reason, his classification has not been universally accepted, though its is the system that has been accepted most.

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