Raga: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Melodic mode in Indian music}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Indian classical music}}

Each ''rāga'' provides the musician with a musical framework within which to improvise.{{Sfn|Lochtefeld|2002|p=545}}{{Sfn|Fabian| Renee Timmers| Emery Schubert|2014|pp=173–174}}{{Sfn|Nettl|2010}} Improvisation by the musician involves creating sequences of notes allowed by the ''rāga'' in keeping with rules specific to the ''rāga''. ''Rāga''s range from small ''rāga''s like [[Bahar (raga)|Bahar]] and [[Shahana]] that are not much more than songs to big ''rāga''s like [[Malkauns]], [[Darbari]] and [[Yaman (raga)|Yaman]], which have great scope for improvisation and for which performances can last over an hour. ''Rāga''s may change over time, with an example being [[Marwa (raga)|Marwa]], the primary development of which has been going down into the lower octave, in contrast with the traditional middle octave.{{sfn|Raja|unknown|p=unknown, Quote: "Due to the influence of [[Amir Khan (singer)|Amir Khan]]"}} Each ''rāga'' traditionally has an emotional significance and symbolic associations such as with season, time and mood.{{Sfn|Lochtefeld|2002|p=545}} The ''rāga'' is considered a means in the Indian musical tradition to evoking specific feelings in an audience. Hundreds of ''rāga'' are recognized in the classical tradition, of which about 30 are common,{{Sfn|Lochtefeld|2002|p=545}}{{Sfn|Nettl|2010}} and each ''rāga'' has its "own unique melodic personality".{{Sfn|Hast|James R. Cowdery|Stanley Arnold Scott|1999|p=137}}

There are two main classical music traditions, ''[[Hindustani classical music|Hindustani]]'' (North Indian) and ''[[Carnatic classical music|Carnatic]]'' (South Indian), and the concept of ''rāga'' is shared by both.{{Sfn|Fabian| Renee Timmers| Emery Schubert|2014|pp=173–174}} ''Rāga'' are also found in Sikh traditions such as in ''[[Guru Granth Sahib]]'', the primary scripture of [[Sikhism]].{{Sfn|Kapoor|2005|pp=46–52}} Similarly, it is a part of the ''[[qawwali]]'' tradition in [[Sufism|Sufi]] Islamic communities of [[South Asia]].{{Sfn|Salhi|2013|pp=183–84}} Some popular [[Filmi|Indian film songs]] and [[ghazal]]s use ''rāgas'' in their composition.{{sfn|Nettl et al.|1998|pp=107–108}}

==Terminology==

The word appears in the ancient [[Principal Upanishads]] of [[Hinduism]], as well as the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]''.<ref name=jacobraga/> For example, verse 3.5 of the ''[[Maitri Upanishad]]'' and verse 2.2.9 of the ''[[Mundaka Upanishad]]'' contain the word ''rāga''. The ''Mundaka Upanishad'' uses it in its discussion of soul (Atman-Brahman) and matter (Prakriti), with the sense that the soul does not "color, dye, stain, tint" the matter.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/thirteenprincipa028442mbp#page/n393/mode/2up Mundaka Upanishad], Robert Hume, Oxford University Press, page 373</ref> The ''Maitri Upanishad'' uses the term in the sense of "passion, inner quality, psychological state".<ref name=jacobraga>[https://archive.org/stream/UpanishadVakyaKosha-AConcordanceOfThePrincipalUpanishadsAndBhagavad/UpanishadVakyaKoshaSktEng#page/n793/mode/2up A Concordance to the Principal Upanishads and Bhagavadgita], GA Jacob, Motilal Banarsidass, page 787</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/stream/upanishads02ml#page/298/mode/2up Maitri Upanishad], Max Muller, Oxford University Press, page 299</ref> The term ''rāga'' is also found in ancient texts of [[Buddhism]] where it connotes "passion, sensuality, lust, desire" for pleasurable experiences as one of three [[Raga (Buddhism)|impurities]] of a character.<ref name=buswelllopezraga/><ref name=rhysd203/> Alternatively, ''rāga'' is used in Buddhist texts in the sense of "color, dye, hue".<ref name=buswelllopezraga>{{cite book|author1=Robert E. Buswell Jr.|author2=Donald S. Lopez Jr.|title=The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4805-8 |pages=59, 68, 589}}</ref><ref name=rhysd203>{{cite book|author1=Thomas William Rhys Davids |author2=William Stede |title=Pali-English Dictionary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Guw2CnxiucC&pg=PA362 |year=1921|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1144-7|pages= 203, 214, 567–568, 634}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Damien Keown |title=A Dictionary of Buddhism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=985a1M7L1NcC|year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-157917-2|pages=8, 47, 143}}</ref>

The term ''rāga'' in the modern connotation of a melodic format occurs in the ''[[Brihaddeshi]]'' by [[Matanga Muni|Mataṅga Muni]] dated ca. 8th century,{{Sfn|Te Nijenhuis|1974|p=3}} or possibly 9th century.{{Sfn|Nettl et al.|1998|pp=73–74}} The ''Brihaddeshi'' describes ''rāga'' as "a combination of tones which, with beautiful illuminating graces, pleases the people in general".{{sfn|Kaufmann|1968|p=41}}

Bharata describes a series of empirical experiments he did with the ''[[Veena]]'', then compared what he heard, noting the relationship of fifth intervals as a function of intentionally induced change to the instrument's tuning. Bharata states that certain combination of notes are pleasant, certain not so. His methods of experimenting with the instrument triggered further work by ancient Indian scholars, leading to the development of successive permutations, as well as theories of musical note inter-relationships, interlocking scales and how this makes the listener feel.{{Sfn|Nettl et al.|1998|pp=73–74}} Bharata discusses ''Bhairava'', ''Kaushika'', ''Hindola'', ''Dipaka'', ''SrI-rāga'', and ''Megha''. Bharata states that these have the ability to trigger a certain affection and the ability to "color the emotional state" in the audience.{{Sfn|Monier-Williams|1899|p=872}}{{Sfn|Nettl et al.|1998|pp=73–74}} His encyclopedic ''Natya Shastra'' links his studies on music to the performance arts, and it has been influential in Indian performance arts tradition.{{Sfn|Lal|2004|pp=311–312}}{{Sfn|Kane|1971|pp=30–39}}

In the ancient texts of Hinduism, the term for the technical mode part of ''rāga'' was ''Jati''. Later, ''Jati'' evolved to mean quantitative class of scales, while ''rāga'' evolved to become a more sophisticated concept that included the experience of the audience.{{Sfn|Caudhurī|2000|pp=48–50, 81}} A figurative sense of the word as 'passion, love, desire, delight' is also found in the ''[[Mahabharata]]''. The specialized sense of 'loveliness, beauty,' especially of voice or song, emerges in [[classical Sanskrit]], used by [[Kalidasa]] and in the ''[[Panchatantra]]''.{{Sfn|Monier-Williams|1899}}

==History and significance==

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The tradition of incorporating ''rāga'' into spiritual music is also found in [[Jainism]],{{Sfn|Kelting|2001|pp=28–29, 84}} and in [[Sikhism]], an Indian religion founded by [[Guru Nanak]] in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Kristen Haar|author2=Sewa Singh Kalsi|title=Sikhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YOI1nB_zTyAC |year=2009|publisher=Infobase |isbn=978-1-4381-0647-2 |pages=60–61}}</ref> In the Sikh scripture, the texts are attached to a ''rāga'' and are sung according to the rules of that ''rāga''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephen Breck Reid|title=Psalms and Practice: Worship, Virtue, and Authority|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OyGqWnBY4KIC&pg=PA13|year=2001|publisher=Liturgical Press|isbn=978-0-8146-5080-6|pages=13–14}}</ref><ref name="Beck2006p156">{{cite book|author=Pashaura Singh|editor=Guy L. Beck|title=Sacred Sound: Experiencing Music in World Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-IeHbqAfSsC&pg=PA156|year=2006|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press|isbn=978-0-88920-421-8|pages=156–60}}</ref> According to Pashaura Singh – a professor of Sikh and Punjabi studies, the ''rāga'' and ''[[Tala (music)|tala]]'' of ancient Indian traditions were carefully selected and integrated by the Sikh Gurus into their hymns. They also picked from the "standard instruments used in Hindu musical traditions" for singing ''kirtans'' in Sikhism.<ref name="Beck2006p156"/>

During the Islamic rule period of the Indian subcontinent, particularly in and after the 15th century, the mystical Islamic tradition of [[Sufism]] developed devotional songs and music called ''[[qawwali]]''. It incorporated elements of ''rāga'' and ''tāla''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Vernon|title=Ethnic and Vernacular Music, 1898–1960: A Resource and Guide to Recordings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gw--_c_LZMIC&pg=PA256 |year=1995|publisher=Greenwood Publishing|isbn=978-0-313-29553-9|page=256}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Regula Qureshi|title=Sufi Music of India and Pakistan: Sound, Context and Meaning in Qawwali|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c3o9AAAAIAAJ|year=1986|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-26767-0|pages=xiii, 22–24, 32, 47–53, 79–85}}</ref>

==Description==

[[File:Sitar Sarod Jugalbandi - lakshay & Aayush Mohan Gupta.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Two Indian musicians performing a ''rāga'' duet called ''[[Jugalbandi]]''.]]

A ''rāga'' has a given set of notes, on a scale, ordered in melodies with musical motifs.{{Sfn|Nettl|2010}} A musician playing a ''rāga'', states [[Bruno Nettl]], may traditionally use just these notes, but is free to emphasize or improvise certain degrees of the scale.{{Sfn|Nettl|2010}} The Indian tradition suggests a certain sequencing of how the musician moves from note to note for each ''rāga'', in order for the performance to create a ''rasa'' (mood, atmosphere, essence, inner feeling) that is unique to each ''rāga''. A ''rāga'' can be written on a scale. Theoretically, thousands of ''rāga'' are possible given 5 or more notes, but in practical use, the classical tradition has refined and typically relies on several hundred.{{Sfn|Nettl|2010}} For most artists, their basic perfected repertoire has some forty to fifty ''rāgas''.{{Sfn|van der Meer|2012|p=5}} ''Rāga'' in Indian classic music is intimately related to ''[[Tala (music)|tala]]'' or guidance about "division of time", with each unit called a ''matra'' (beat, and duration between beats).{{Sfn|van der Meer|2012|pp=6–8}}

Joep Bor of the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music defined ''rāga'' as a "tonal framework for composition and improvisation."<ref name=Bor>{{cite book |title=The Raga Guide |last1=Bor |first1=Joep |last2=Rao |first2=Suvarnalata |last3=Van der Meer |first3=Wim |last4=Harvey |first4=Jane |year=1999 |publisher=[[Nimbus Records]] |isbn=978-0-9543976-0-9 |page=181|title-link=The Raga Guide }}</ref> [[Nazir Jairazbhoy]], chairman of [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]]'s department of [[ethnomusicology]], characterized rāgas as separated by scale, line of ascent and descent, [[wiktionary:en:transilience|transilience]], emphasized notes and register, and intonation and [[Ornament (music)|ornaments]].{{Sfn|Jairazbhoy|1995|p=45}}

=== Rāga-Rāgini system ===

{{For|illustrations of ragas and raginis|Ragamala paintings}}

''Rāginī'' ([[Devanagari]]: रागिनी) is a term for the "feminine" counterpart of a "masculine" rāga.{{Sfn|Dehejia|2013|pages=191–97}} These are envisioned to parallel the god-goddess themes in Hinduism, and described variously by different medieval Indian music scholars. For example, the ''Sangita-darpana'' text of 15th-century Damodara Misra proposes six ''rāgas'' with thirty ''ragini'', creating a system of thirty six, a system that became popular in [[Rajasthan]].{{Sfn|Dehejia|2013|pages=168–69}} In the north Himalayan regions such as [[Himachal Pradesh]], the music scholars such as 16th century Mesakarna expanded this system to include eight descendants to each ''rāga'', thereby creating a system of eighty four. After the 16th-century, the system expanded still further.{{Sfn|Dehejia|2013|pages=168–69}}

   | width=60px style="background: #ffad66;" | [[Swara|Svara]]<br>(Long)

   | width=80px | Sadja<br>(षड्ज)

   | width= 80px | Gandhara<br>(गान्धार)

   | width= 80px | Madhyama<br>(मध्यम)

   | width= 80px | Dhaivata<br>(धैवत)

|-style="text-align: center;"

   | Svara<br>(Short)

|}

These musical elements are organized into scales (''mela''), and the South Indian system of ''rāga'' works with 72 scales, as first discussed by ''Caturdandi prakashika''.{{Sfn|Randel|2003|p=815}} They are divided into two groups, ''purvanga'' and ''uttaranga'', depending on the nature of the lower tetrachord. The ''anga'' itself has six cycles (''cakra''), where the ''purvanga'' or lower tetrachord is anchored, while there are six permutations of ''uttaranga'' suggested to the artist.{{Sfn|Randel|2003|p=815}} After this system was developed, the Indian classical music scholars have developed additional ''rāgas'' for all the scales. The North Indian style is closer to the Western diatonic modes, and built upon the foundation developed by [[Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande]] using ten ''Thaat'': ''kalyan, bilaval, khamaj, kafi, asavari, bhairavi, bhairav, purvi, marva and todi''.{{Sfn|Randel|2003|pp=815–816}} Some ''rāgas'' are common to both systems and have same names, such as ''kalyan'' performed by either is recognizably the same.{{Sfn|Randel|2003|p=816}} Some ''rāgas'' are common to both systems but have different names, such as ''malkos'' of Hindustani system is recognizably the same as ''hindolam'' of Carnatic system. However, some ''rāgas'' are named the same in the two systems, but they are different, such as ''todi''.{{Sfn|Randel|2003|p=816}}

Janaka rāgas are grouped together using a scheme called ''[[Katapayadi]] sutra'' and are organised as ''Melakarta'' rāgas. A Melakarta rāga is one which has all seven notes in both the ārōhanam (ascending scale) and avarōhanam (descending scale). Some ''[[Melakarta]]'' rāgas are ''[[Harikambhoji]]'', ''[[Kalyani (rāga)|Kalyani]]'', ''[[Kharaharapriya]]'', ''[[Mayamalavagowla]]'', ''[[Sankarabharanam (raga)|Sankarabharanam]]'' and ''[[Hanumatodi]]''.<ref name="raganidhi">''Raganidhi'' by P. Subba Rao, Pub. 1964, The Music Academy of Madras</ref><ref name="ragas">''Ragas in Carnatic music'' by Dr. S. Bhagyalekshmy, Pub. 1990, CBH Publications</ref> [[Janya]] rāgas are derived from the Janaka rāgas using a combination of the swarams (usually a subset of swarams) from the parent rāga. Some janya rāgas are ''[[Abheri]]'', ''[[Abhogi]]'', ''[[Bhairavi (Carnatic)|Bhairavi]]'', ''[[Hindolam]]'', ''[[Mohanam]]'' and ''[[Kambhoji]]''.<ref name="raganidhi" /><ref name="ragas" />

==Training==

==Persian ''rāk''==

* [[Raga rock]]

* [[Arabic maqam]]

== References ==

*{{cite book|first=Ananda|last=Lal |title=The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DftkAAAAMAAJ| year=2004| publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-564446-3}}

*{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Lavezzoli|title=The Dawn of Indian Music in the West|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSZKCXtx-wEC |year=2006|location=New York|publisher=Continuum|isbn=978-0-8264-1815-9}}

*{{cite book|first=James G.|last=Lochtefeld|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, 2 Volume Set|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5kl0DYIjUPgC|year=2002|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-0823922871}}

*{{cite book|first=José Luiz|last=Martinez|title=Semiosis in Hindustani Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OwJRnFIcM4cC |year=2001|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1801-9}}