Overview Of Ragas

• Before different ragas can be listed, a better understanding of the musical structure may be in order. Many times, a raga is described by Indian musicians as an expression of color or mood, rather than a melody or tune. When defining a raga, there are the notes of the Indian scale. These are called "swar," as they correspond very closely to the western Do-Re-Mi scale popularized in "The Sound of Music."
  
  Then there are the variations on scale, called "thaats." Formally, Indian music has 10 variations of scale, but in practice, as many as 32 may be used. "Jati," another musical term, refers to the number of notes in a raga. This number ranges between five and seven notes, bearing in mind that many ragas have an ascending and descending component, as well. Furthermore, a completed raga uses all of these major elements, plus many minor ones to compose a musical picture of a color, deity, plant or animal. And often after a raga has been successfully received by the listening public, a realistic painting is created from the musical score.
  
  

Classification by Deities

• At first, Indian ragas were classified as either male or female. The male versions took on the title raga, while the female arrangements were called ragini. From these musical parents offspring were developed and labeled as raga-putras. Over time this system was expanded to include six janak-ragas, each one based on one of the six seasons that are observed in India.
  
  

Time of Day

• Also included in the Indian raga system are the eight periods of a 24-hour day. Every three-hour period is known as a prahar, and consequently is used as an auxilliary system in classifying ragas. In general the first prahar of the day begins at 3 a.m. and lasts for three hours. Subsequently, each raga is assigned to the most appropriate time of day.
  
  

Musical Scales

• The most recent method of raga classification centers around the number of notes in both the ascending and descending scales. In each case, there may be five, six or seven notes. Respectively these scales are described as audava (five note), sadava (six note) or sampurna (seven note) scales or jati. Now, take the fact that each raga has an ascending and descending section. As a result, nine combinations are possible, ranging from a Audava-Audava (five ascending and descending notes) to a Sampurna-Sampurna (seven ascending and descending notes).