Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Raga guide 1

Many of us who are new to Hindustani classical music, and have just started to appreciate it, would want to know the basic structure of each Raga. Although classical music is a vast subject and cannot be understood by merely listening to music samples, it would be of immense help to many to have an insight on each Raga. In this series of 8-9 posts I will cover about 40-45 most sung Ragas. At the beginning of each song the vocalist, Subhra Guha of Agra Gharana, explains the basic structure of the Raga that is being sung. There are a few technical terms spoken by her during this briefing. Without delving into the technicalities, I will describe just these.

Each one of the several traditional Ragas is based on, or is a variation of, 10 basic Thaats, or musical scales or frameworks. The ten Thaats are Bilawal, Kalyan, Khamaj, Bhairav, Poorvi, Marwa, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi and Todi,. If one were to pick a Raga at random, it should be possible to find that it is based on one or the other of these Thaats.

Aroha presents the ascending scale of a Raga, whereas Avroha presents the descending scale. Pakad is the phrase of melody belonging to a Raga. It is the very essence of a Raga containing all its elements and individuality. It is something unique and not transferable to some other Raga.

Ragas are presented here in alphabetical order.

Subhra Guha - Raga Alahiya Bilawal (late morning) :  Download








Subhra Guha - Raga Barwa (early evening) :  Download










Subhra Guha - Raga Bhairavi (any time) :  Download








Subhra Guha - Raga Bhankar (early morning) :  Download








Subhra Guha - Raga Bhimpalasi (early afternoon) :  Download








.. basics of Indian Raga »

6 comments:

Sonal said...

Thanks for starting the Raaga Guide. I love to hear Hindustani Classical, but cannot appreciate it fully due to lack of knowledge. Would love to understand atleast a drop in this huge ocean. Thanks again.

Dr Madhav, India said...

Hi !! It would have been better if u had classified ragas accoring to Thats.. Bilawal, kalyan, todi instead of alphabetical order. The present order creates confusion.. at least to me. I wud have preferred traditional way.
Dr Madhav

Padmakar Dadegaonkar said...

I Agree with Dr. Madhav. Can you not still rearrange it? It is meant for beginners, isn't? So lets not confuse them.

Anonymous said...

I think this raga guide is the standard of classical raga expresion due to note weightage in pakad,this may be the universal in future.

Anonymous said...

Music is related to definit logic,but we have only (0.5)% ,remaing music exist in nature.
Now it is the time to expliour,actually music in the sence not only the music but some thing else .
The present our classical music can not compatable until we make it for universal use.

Anonymous said...

There are thousand of parkar of each existing raga but all are bound to sing a few.
still we are in the dark age of music!!!!!!!!

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