Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

2. Rāga.

(i) The concept.

(ii) Historical development of rāga systems.

(iii) Rāga in Hindustani music.

(iv) Rāga in Karnatak music.

(v) Hindustani and Karnatak rāgas.

India, Subcontinent of, §III, 2: Theory and practice of classical music., Rāga.

(i) The concept.

(a) Rāga as melody type.

The central element of South Asian classical music is rāga. A rāga is not a tune, nor is it a ‘modal’ scale, but rather a continuum with scale and tune as its extremes (see Mode, §V, 3). Many rāgas can share the same intervallic structure, that is, the same scale-type (mela, thāt); at the same time, any number of compositions or improvisations can be in the same rāga.

A rāga can be described with emphasis on both ‘scale’ and ‘tune’ aspects. From the scale side, individual scale degrees may be assigned specific modal functions. The predominant degree was called amśa in traditional śāstra. It is called vādī in modern Hindustani music (along with its co-predominant samvādī; see §1(i) above), and in Karnatak music it is called jīva-svara (‘life degree’). Initial and final degrees in traditional śāstra were called graha (‘taking’) and nyāsa (‘settling’). These terms relate to a period when there was no system tonic, and the predominant and final of a rāga could be different svara. With the transposition of all rāgas to a common system tonic (sa: see §1(ii)(c) above) by the 16th century, the three functions of predominant, initial and final tended to become identified with the system tonic. In some modern texts (e.g. Thakur’s Sangītāñjali) the terms graha, nyāsa and amśa have been revived to denote respectively phrase beginnings, phrase endings and the predominant degrees in the rāga as a whole.

A rāga can also be described by its melodic features, that is, in terms of successions of scale degrees. The nearest to a scalar description is the āroh-avaroh, the ascent–descent pattern. The āroh-avaroh of a rāga can show which scale degrees never appear and where any regularly occurring turns in the line occur. More elaborate descriptive samples of characteristic melodic configuration are called calan in Hindustani music and sañcāra in Karnatak music. In Karnatak music a motif especially characteristic for a rāga is called rāga-chāya-sañcāra (‘rāga-image-phrase’) or, in Tamil, pitippu (‘catch’). In Hindustani music such a motif is called a pakad (also ‘catch’) for the rāga or, in a more Sanskritized fashion, its mukhyānga (‘chief part’) or the rāgānga (‘part [that shows the] rāga’).

The number of rāgas in practical use both in Hindustani and Karnatak music is of the order of a couple of hundred, so that every rāga is itself an element in a larger system. The recognizability of a rāga may turn on one or more of a number of heterogeneous factors of different orders of abstraction: these include intervallic structure (scale-type), prominent and transitory pitches, a particular way of ornamenting one or more scale degrees, characteristic motifs, characteristic tessitura or pace etc. Such factors in turn are perceived in terms of contrasting possibilities: two rāgas may have the same intervallic structure but different predominant notes or characteristic motifs; another two rāgas may share melodic configurations but differ in intervallic structure. Sometimes a whole group of rāgas shares some distinctive common melodic material, while at the same time each individual rāga has its own distinguishing features.

(b) Non-structural aspects.

The word rāga itself points to the importance of non-structural aspects of the concept. It derives from the Sanskrit root rañj, ‘to be coloured, to redden’, hence ‘to be affected, moved, charmed, delighted’. As a noun, rāga is that quality of an object that arouses feeling or delight, and in early literature it refers in a non-technical sense to the beauty of a song, its ‘passion’. Only from Matanga (8th–9th century) onwards is it used in a technical sense to denote a melodic construct or melody-type. The aesthetic impact of such a melody-type, its ability to delight the hearer, is attributed to the particular notes and melodic movements that render it distinct from all other melody-types. Thus the term implies the prime importance of aesthetic effect, but this is considered to be inseparable from melodic individuality.

Aesthetic and extra-musical aspects of rāga have been, and remain, profoundly important in Indian culture. They have included supernatural powers over the physical universe and associations with particular divinities, human characters, seasons and times of day. The earliest associations were with drama, since music played a central part in ancient Indian theatre. In the Brhad-deśī (see §II, 2(i)(a) above) certain rāgas were prescribed to introduce particular sections of a drama or particular characters, scenes, situations and rasa (aesthetic flavour; see §7 below). When the theory and practice of music became gradually divorced from drama, more esoteric associations were put forward. These included the association of each rāga with a presiding deity (13th century, Sangīta-ratnākara), leading to its further identification as a deity, male or female (14th century, Kalpasūtra). Consequently, many rāgas bear the names of deities and are still sometimes believed to present themselves as spirits or jinns to the musician when correctly performed. From the 16th century, however, a secularization of this concept occurred, especially at the Mughal and Rājput courts, whereby rāgas were associated with the literary typology of erotic heroes and heroines (nāyaka and nāyikā) rather than with deities. Male rāgas and female rāginī were accordingly depicted as persons or tableaux in Sanskrit verses (rāga-dhyāna) and sets of miniature paintings (rāga-mālā; see §II, 3(iii) above).

The belief that rāgas can exercise power over the physical world, as well as or instead of the aesthetic one, is perhaps an extension of their earlier identification as divinities. The power of rāga Dīpak to produce fire and of Malhār to produce rain, for example, are recurrent themes in the mythology of Indian music. Some musicians attribute therapeutic properties to rāgas, each being beneficial for specific physiological or mental ailments. In the absence of any universally recognized, authoritative definition of the rāgas, the ability to produce magical or therapeutic effects is sometimes claimed by or attributed to musicians as a means of confirming the validity of their tradition.

The association of rāgas with particular times of day or seasons of the year is still particularly strong in Hindustani music. Each rāga is attributed to one of the eight pahar or divisions of the day and night, and/or to one of the six seasons (rtu), and will normally be performed at or near its proper time and in the correct sequence relative to other rāgas. This association may derive from temple music, where rāgas are sung to accompany the cycle of daily rituals and seasonal festivals.

While it is often assumed that the aesthetic and other associations attributed to rāgas are dependent on the structural characteristics by which the rāgas are defined, the link between the two realms remains elusive. A number of inconclusive attempts have been made to verify traditional rāga associations experimentally, for instance by playing samples of various rāgas to subjects and eliciting verbal responses (e.g. Deva, 1981). Bhatkhande had some success in linking the performance times of Hindustani rāgas with their scale-types and the position of the vādī, but anomalies remain. The fact that many rāgas have changed in structure over the centuries but have retained earlier time-associations suggests that structural and non-structural aspects are not directly interdependent. Rather, each rāga has aesthetic and extra-musical associations that are triggered in the knowledgeable listener's mind by its correct rendition according to the current concept of its structure.