Music is an integral part of Indian culture. It is the one art which is evident in all the strata of society. Indian music is one of the living systems of music in the world.

Indian music is a typical example of Modal music (music based on modes). The individuality of a mode is extablished by notes of defined frequencies in its structure. It is not the inter-relationship of each note to the basic tonic note. This tonic note may be actually heard through a rone or even in its absence, a trained ear is able to recognise the raga, bearing in mind the presumed tonic note. Memory thus plays an important part in Indian music.

India has developed forms of culture, lifeways and music that are distictive of its own.Yet because of its size and its variety of terrain, there are also great regional differences. The largest such division is between the Hindi related language groups of the North and Dravidian-speaking people of the south; the northern Hindustani style and the southern Karnataka (Carnatic) tradition.

History of Carnatic Music

Carnatic Music has its roots in the distance past. The earliest extend theoritical work is the Natya Sastra by Bharatha, a treatise on theater, dance and music dating between the second century B.C to the fifth century A.D. Through centuries many more important scholarly books on music have been written, perhaps the most noteworthy of which was the medieval Sangeetha Ratnakara by Sarangadeva.

A south Indian proverb compares the compositions of thrimurthys. Dikshitar is said to have written music that is like a coconut: the hard shell of his brilliantly intellectual musical structures and complex, scholarly and sometimes esoteric texts must be broken to taste the sweat nut and milk inside. By contrast, Sama Sastri's music is said to be like a banana: the fruit is not so difficult to get in, but one must still peel off the bitter skin - Sastri's complicated talas rhythms and talas of five and seven beats before enjoying its flavour. But Tyagaraja's music is said to be like fresh, ripe grapes; both poetry and melody are immediately accessible to enjoy it one needs to merely bite into it. Even the skin is soft and sweat.

Swara

Indian music has seven notes or swaras as with all systems of music. Swara is defined as "that which is able to please of its own accord". These seven swaras are called Shadjamam, Rishabham, Gandharam, Madhyamam, Panchamam, Dhivatham and Nishadham. These are often represented as Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da and Ne, by their first syllable.

The sudha swaras, also known as Prakrithi swaras, have the prefix Sudha. This is usually the lowest pitched note for that swara. The vikratha swaras have prefixes like chatussruthi, shatshuruthi, sadharana, antara, etc. In Hindustani music, sudha swara usually refer to Sankarabharana scale (Bilval).

Raga

Raga is the Pivotal concept of Carnatic music. This concept is India's proud contribution to world music. The ideal of absolute music is reached in the concept of Raga. Raga is much more than a scale. It is defied as that which colors the mind in ancient text. (Raga (Sanskrith): coloriing, dyeing, tingering). A raga is in some ways a kind of mystical expression with a musical personality of its own. The whole structure of Indian music is built around the concept of raga. Indian melodies of the classical type are based on ragas. As for folk melodies a good number of them will be found to be in some recognisable raga. Some folk meledies are in mixed ragas. The same goes with popular film music tunes.

Raga can be loosely defined as melody type or expressive mode. It consists of series of upto seven notes, which bear a definite relationship to adhara shadja and which occur in a particular sequence. They derive their personality through notes of defined pitch entering into their formation. It is the arrangement of particular swaras, in conformity to recognised aesthetic laws that establish the rupa (form) of raga.

Raga alapana is the presentation of pharases admissible in the raga in such a manner as to bring out its distictive characteristics. The arohana and avarohana constitute the briefest description of a raga. It gives the concsise form of the outline or framework of the raga.

Raga classification

Melam and Janyam Ragas are classifed into Janaka ragas and Janya ragas. Janaka ragas, also known as Melakartha or Sampurna raga has all seven notes (saptha swara) in their arohana and avarohana. There are 72 such janaka ragas arranged in a definete, serial order. A Janya raga is said to be derived from a janaka raga. It takes the same swaras as in its melakartha raga, but may take fewer swaras.

Vajra Raga: Janya ragas is called Vajra raga if upto three swaras are deleted in the arohaana, avarohana or both., Vajra ragas are furher classified into shadava (only six swaras present in aarohanam / avarohanam of raga; or one vajra) and audava (only five swaras present; two being vajra). As mentioned before, a raga with all seven notes is called sampurna raga. Note that a raga with only four notes in aarohana or avarohana is not considered since atleast five swaras are required to give an individuality to the raga. Also janayas can have different number of swaras in arohanam and avarohanam giving rise to eight types of varja ragas.

Eight kinds of Varja ragas with example

Upanga and Bashanga Raga: Another type of raga classification classifies them as Upanga raga if janya takes only the swaras of the melakartha (as they usually do), Bashanga raga if they take a foreign swara in either arohanam, avarohanam or both (from somether melakartha) and vakra raga if arohana or avarohana or both take zig-zag course or twist. Vakra ragas are further classifed into Sampurna vakra if arohana and avarohana are sampurna (with all seven notes present) or Vakra varja if they have less than seven notes. Vakra ragas also are classified into Ekaswara vakra, Dviswara vakra, Triswara vakra or Chatusswara vakra based on number of vakra swaras in the raga (one, two, three and four respectively). Four is the maximum number of vakra swara that a raga can accomadate. In Bashanga raga, the foreign note is known as annya swara. The number of Bhashanga ragas used in Carnatic music is 26.

Examples of Bhasanga and Vakra Janya ragas