’Raga’ is the most fundamental concept of Indian classical music both in Hindustani and Carnatic musical traditions.
The origin of the word lies in the Sanskrit word’Raga’ which literally means color. Therefore Raga can be conceived as something which has the ability to portray a color not literally but metaphorically.
It colors the heart of the listeners with a particular emotion which it can paint. It is a very broad concept and no amount of writing can capture the aesthetics of a Raga in actual terms.
*Musically speaking a Raga is not a tune. It is neither a scale nor a mode as in the western music. Very broadly speaking it is a set of notes which follow a particular pattern with stronger emphasis on few particular notes.
To begin with any Raga must have at least 5 notes including the sadaja(SA) the tonic. Each Raga defines a particular pattern in which notes are traversed upward(aaroha) and downward (awaroha) in the chromatic scale(saptak) with a particular note identified as the most dominant note i.e. the ’vaadi’ swara literally meaning ?the one which sounds?.
To elaborate the above in more detail one must start with the very basic of Indian music which lies in something known as a’swara’ which can nearly be approximated to the western concept of notes. However the difference lies in the unique concept of’Shrutis’ i.e. microtones or the various minute and subtle differences of the same note.
It is the’shrutis’ along with aaroha and awaroha which makes two different Raga having similar notes sound differently. As all of us are aware there are 7 notes in the chromatic scale known as the?saptak?. These are SA RE GA MA PA DHA NI SA’. Between these seven notes lie 5 more notes which are either the flat(komal) versions of these or a sharp(teevra) version.
The notes which have the komal swaras are re, ga, dha, ni and one which has a teevra variation is madhyama or MA. So the expanded chromatic scale is SA re RE ga GA MA MA? PA dha DHA ni NI SA?.
Beyond these there are numerous variations of these swaras called?shrutis? which are 22 in number. A worth mentioning feature is that none of the swaras have an absolute position fixed in the chromatic scale and the swara can lie anywhere in the range of frequencies deciphered by human senses.
However these swaras do have relative position with respect to SA called?Sadaja? literally meaning the one which gives birth to the other six. SA can be placed anywhere in the chromatic scale but once the position of SA is fixed other notes take their respective positions. The difference in frequency between SA and RE is the same as that between RE and GA and the komal swaras lying halfway.
Coming back to Raga and the characteristics of a Raga. A Raga must have 5 distinct or more notes including the SA. The fact that SA is mandatory is implied by the way other notes take shape relative to SA. The number of notes in a Raga defines the jaati of the Raga. Therefore there are different Ragas falling into the following jaatis. Pentatonic, hexatonic and heptatonic called as audav, shadav and sampoorna respectively.
A Raga may have both the komal and shuddha swara of the same note but they are counted as a single note while determining the jaati of a Raga. Each Raga has its own aaroha and awaroha. Both aaroha and awaroha can either utilize all the notes or skip one of more. Taking aaroha and awaroha into consideration the jaati can thus be expanded as
1. Audav audav(5 notes in aaroha and 5 in awaroha) 2. Audav shadav(5 aaroha 6 awaroha) 3. Shadav sampoorna( 6 aaroha 7 awaroha) and various other permutations of audav, shadav and sampoorna.
In aaroha and awaroha the notes can be traversed in sequence or the movement can be twisted and zigzag leading to Ragas called?vakra? Ragas.
The two Ragas Bhimpalasi and Bageshwari have the same notes but they differ in their aaroha and awaroha and the latter being vakra in its awaroha. Because of these both the Ragas sound extremely different.
Bhimpalasi Aroha: S g M P n S? Awroha: S? n D P M g R S(sequential descent)
Bageshwari Aroha: S g M D n S? Awaroha: S? n D M P D M g R S.(notice the twisted or vakra movement while descending)
Not all the swaras in a Raga have the same importance. Each Raga has a dominant note called the vaadi swara and the second most important swara called the samvaadi swara. Usually one of them lies in the lower half of the octave and the other one in the upper half. Apart from vaadi-samvaadi each Raga is characterized by a particular movement of the notes or phrases called?pakad?.
Raga Malkauns can be identified by the following movement of swaras?n S g d d n S M M g S g M g S? and Raga Bhairavi by?g S r S n S g M p d P M g r S?.
The pakad is the key to identify a particular Raga. Apart from vaadi sanwadi swaras there are some swaras which serve as resting points for a Raga and these swaras are called the?nyaas? swaras. More often than not the vaadi-samvaadi swaras are also the?nyaas? swaras of a Raga.
Apart from the above musical aspects most of the Ragas are also associated with a particular time of the day. It is said that if a Raga is sung or played at the time when the Raga is supposed to be sung or played then its resonating frequencies will be in consonance with nature and generate harmony.
However if the same is heard at some other time it may fail to generate the harmony. However ardent lovers of Ragas may dispute this theory. Although there is no complete theory which can assign time to particular Raga and that this assignment is mostly historical, musicologists say that when a particular combination of notes is sung or played it generates an aura around an individual and the assignment of time is based on whether the aura generates harmony or not.
There are some Ragas like malhars, Basant, Bahar etc which have been traditionally associated with particular seasons. It is generally believed in musical circle that these Ragas evoke the feelings of the season with which they are associated and are usually sung and played in concerts to celebrate the onset of the same.
With all the above characteristics a Raga thus becomes a musical framework for composition. It is not static and does not have one single flavor.
A Raga exhibits a gamut of emotions or rasas some more prominent and some to a lesser extent. The framework is extensively broad for an artist to generate expression and improvisation.
Ragas do not become obsolete and stale over time rather they continue to spread new and inexperienced bliss every time they are played or sung. It is a dynamic entity which is reborn each time with a unique and distinct musical idea.