RAGA and RELATED TERMINOLOGY

Apoorva Raga: A rare raga – not frequently sung or popular.

Arohanam: Among the seven Swaras, Sa is the basic note and the rest of the notes are successively higher to the basic Sa. This gives an ascending scale of seven notes (e.g. Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Da Ni). The group of ascending notes is called Arohanam.

Avarohanam: The descending scale of seven notes (staring from the higher Sa) is called Avarohanam  (e.g. Sa, Ni, Da, Pa, Ma, Ga, Ri).

Chayalaga Raga: A raga, with resemblance to two ragas.

Deshya Raga: A rare raga whose roots can be traced to Hindustani music.

Gamaka: Grace, deflection of swaras

Gana Ragas: Gana raga can be identified by the singing of thana (Ghanam) during the rendering of the raga.  The thana is usually sung in the Madhyama Kala or Middle speed.

·         Examples of Ghana raga include: Nattai, Gowlai, Arabhi, Varali, and Sri in which Sri Thyagaraja has composed the famous Gana Raga Pancharathnas. 

Gana ragas also include other ragas, such as Kedaram, Narayanagowlai, Saranganata, Bauli, and Ritigowla.

Graha Swara: Swara in which a raga or a composition begins.  Graha swara is also the lakshna (the symbolic swara) for a raga.

Harmonic and Melodic systems of music: Harmonic system of music is more characteristic of Western music where swaras or notes have definitive or identical pitch or frequency interval between notes.  In contrast, Melodic system of music is more characteristic of Indian music – both Carnatic and Hindustani, in which interval between swaras is of relative frequency that gives rise to melody or gamaka.

Janaka Ragam or Parent ragam: Also called Melakartha Ragam, Melam, Kartha Ragam, Sampoorna Ragam.  For a ragam to be called Janaka ragam, it should conform to the following attributes:

·         In a  Janaka raga, the seven basic Swaras (s r g m p d n) must be used both in the ascending and descending orders (Arohanam and Avarohanam).

·         The swaras must also ascend and descend in the same order.

·         Each swaram must occur only once in the Arohanam and only once in the Avarhonam                                                                                                                                                                                       

·         Both the arohanam and the avarohanam must include the Tara Sthayi Shadjam (upper Sa) as one of the seven notes.

·         Note:  Although there are seven basic Swaras, there are varieties within them (e.g. Antara Gandharam and Sadharana Gandharam, Sudha Dhaivatam, Chatussruthi Dhaviatam, etc; therefore, using one of these notes in combination with the other six Swaras creates different parent ragas).

There are 72 Janaka ragas or parent ragas – a few examples are: Kanakanki, Ganamurthi, Vanaspathi, Manavathi, Natakapriya, Gayakapriya, Gowri Manohari, Charukesi, Sarasangi, Dheera Sankarabharanam, Kangeya Bhooshani, Navaneetham.

Janya Ragam or Child ragam:

  • A janya raga (child raga) originates from a Janaka or parent raga.  Each Janaka raga can give rise to several Janya ragas or child ragas. One of the characteristics of the relationship between a Janaka and Janya raga is, the Janya raga should use the same scale as the parent raga.
  • However (unlike a Janaka raga), a Janya or child raga need not use the same seven swaras in the ascending and descending orders.  For example, a Janya raga can use a certain micro variety of a certain basic Swara (e.g. Suddha Rishabam) in the arohanam and use a different micro variety of the Swara (e.g. Chatussruti Rishabam) in the avarohanam.   An example of this would be, raga Bhairavi. 
  • Bhairavi’s araohanam and avarahonam is as follows:

                                    .    .

                     s r g m p d n s

                     .

                     s n d p m g r s

  • Similarly, a Janya raga need not use all the seven notes from the parent.  It could use multiple combinations – e.g. use all the seven notes from the parent in the ascending order while, use only six of the seven notes from the parent in the descending order.  There are also other combinations possible..  For example, raga Saramathi has the following Swara sequence:

                                          .

                     s r g m p d n  s

                     .

                     s n d m g s

 

Saramathi’s parent, Nata Bhairavi, has the following Swara sequence:

                              .

                     s r g m p d n  s

                     .

                     s n d p m g r s


Unlike its parent, a Janya raga can repeat a Swara.  For example, the raga Sahana has the following sequence:

                                               .

                     S r g m p m D n  s

                     .

                     s n d p m G m R g r s

     

  • Sometimes, a janya raga also can take one or two Swaras not present in its parent raga.

Katapayadi Sankhya: A tabular arrangement that facilitates detecting the serial number of a Melakarta raga in the Venkatamukhi Melakarta scheme.

Rakthi Raga: refers to melody.  Rakthi prayogas or uses enhances the beauty of a raga.

Sampooorna Raga: refers to a raga with all seven swaras in the Arohanam and Avarohanam.

Sruthi: Sruthi refers to the interval between two different pitches.  For example, a note can be sung in a lower pitch or a higher pitch and the different between the lower and higher pitch is termed as Sruthi. It is not measured as a precise ratio.  In Indian music, system, a person discerns a Sruthi through training and a mental understanding of the acoustical difference. In theory, an octave (from the lower Sa to the next higher Sa) is divided into 22 Sruthis.

Generally, surthi denotes Madhyama (middle) level Sa or Shadja. The sruthi chosen by a male singer and a female singer varies.  Sruthi chosen by male performers usually range between 1, 1.5, or 2 sruthi (C or C sharp, or D in piano key) while, sruthi chosen by females range between 4.5, 5 or 6 (F sharp, G, or A in a piano key).

Sruthi Beda: refers to changing the basic note or sruti of a scale and getting new ragas by the shift of the scale.

Varja Ragam: Is an attribute of Janya (child) ragas.  A Janya raga, either in the arohanam or in the avarohanam, can omit one or two Swaras that appear in its parent raga.  These omitted Swaras are called Vajra Swarams. 

  • For example, Sriranjani (a Shadava raga or six notes) has the following Swara arrangement:

    

             s r g m d n  s

             s n d m g r s

  Sriranjani’s parent is Kharaharapriya (22nd Melakarta).

  • When a raga takes only five of the seven notes of its parent, it is known as an Audava raga.

For example, Mohanam has the following Swaras:

                 s r g p d s

           .

           s d p g r s

·        Other combinations include: seven swaras in arohanam and six on the avarohanam (Sampoorna – shadava); six in the arohanam and five in the avarohanam (Shadava – audava) etc. The following tables shows the eight varja raga possibilities.

 

Arohanam

Avarohanam

Example

Sampoorna  (7)

Shadava  (6)

Neelambari

Shadava      (6)

Sampoorna  (7)

Kamboji

Sampoorna  (7)

Audava     (5)

Saramathi

Audava    (5)

Sampoorna  (7)

Bilahari

Shadava  (6)

Shadava  (6)

Sriranjani

Shadava (6)

Audava (5)

Nattakuranji

Audava (5)

Shadava (6)

Vasantha

Audava (5)

Audava (5)

Mohanam

                                                                                                        

Note; During the count for seven, six, or five notes, the tara sthayi shadja (the s with a dot on its had) is omitted from the count.

Vakra Ragam: Vakram refers to crooked or out of order.  For example, when the swaras in a child raga (Janya), if either in Arohanam or in the Avarohanam, occur in a different order than it appears in its parent, then child raga is known as a Vakra ragam. For example, see the order of notes in Sri Ragam given below.

                                        .

                                  s r m p n s

                                  .                

                                  s n p d n p m r g  r s

 

Sri Ragam’s parent is Kharaharapriya (22nd Melakarta) with

A: S R1 G3 M1 P D3 N3 S

Av: S N3 D3 P M1 G3 R1 S

  • In vakra raga, a prior note could also repeat itself (e.g. n and r in the above example).  However, this is not true for all Vakra ragas.
  • There are three kinds of vakra ragams.

1.      Ragas in which only the arohanam has vakra swarams (irregular order).  Example:  Anandhabhairavi.

2.      Ragas in which only avarohanam has vakra swarams (irregular order).  Example:  Sriragam

3.       Ragas in which vakra swaras (irregular order) occur in both the arohanam and the avarohanam (e.g. Sahana).

Upanga and Bhashanga Ragas: A Upanga raga is a Janya raga that uses only Swaras belonging to its parent (e.g. Mohanam (child of Harikamboji whose swaras are: Sa, Ri (chatusruthi), Ga (Antara), Ma (Suddha), Pa, Da (Chatusruthi), and Ni (Kaisiki) –

s n d p m g r s)

                      .

                 s r g p d s

           .

           s d p g r s

 

Written by: Ram Sriram