Date: 7 Mar 92 19:42:25 GMT
Message-ID: <1992Mar7.194225.25119@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
References: <RAM.5@hpd.unp.ac.za>
Subject: Re: Mixed Ragas
In his article RAM@hpd.unp.ac.za writes:
I was very impressed with Krishna Kunchitapadam's list of equivalent ragas. I am interested to know how hybrid ragas are accomodated in the mela taxonomy if at all. For eg. Kaushi Kanada is Malkauns in ascent and Darbari Kanada in Descent.
Vevek Ram
rAgas like kAUShe-kAnadA (mAlkAUns+dharbAre-kAnadA) or jOg-kAUns (jOg+mAlkAUns or jOg+candhrakAUns) are popular only in hendhusthAne music. BathkaNdAE's 10 ThAT system does not treat janya rAgas as derivable from the parent mAELa rAgas by the elision of notes in a (possibly) permuted scale. Assigning a rAga to a ThAT is done based on the perceived (for some well-accepted meaning of the word) similarities between the janya rAga and the mAELa rAga. Hence mixed rAgas do not pose a taxonomic problem in the hendhusthAne system of music---the mixed rAgas simply go under the most appropriate ThAT.
In the karNAtaka system, mixed rAgas cannot be classified as janyas of the mAELa rAgas without violating the principle that janya rAgas are obtainable from the janaka-mAELa rAga by svara elision. One way to get around the problem is to define the BAShAngga rAga system. A simplistic view of a BAShAngga rAga is that it is an upAngga (pure/unmixed) rAga, but with very specific usages that permit the introduction of foreign notes into the scale. If the corresponding upAngga rAga can be assigned to a mAELa, the BAShAngga rAga is also classified as a janya of the same mAELa.
Completely mixed rAgas, like kAUShe-kAnadA, cannot be classified at all in the 72-mAELa scheme, without gross and large-scale application of the principle of BAShAngga. For this reason, musicologists have devised the SudhDha-meSra mAELa scheme, a comprehensive system of scales that encompasses the taxonomic properties of all other classification systems and can describe the derivation of any conceivable musical scale (non-musical scales, e.g. those with sequences of 5 or more consecutive svara-sThAnas to an octave, fall outside taxonomic systems).
The SudhDha-meSra mAELa scheme consists of 5184 (72*72) mAELa rAgas. Each of the mAELas is sampUrNa-sampUrNa (7 notes in both the ArOhaNa and the avarOhaNa). The ArOhaNa and the avarOhaNa are also identical with the corresponding scale of some one of the 72-mAELa rAgas---the only difference being that the notes used in the ArOhaNa and the avarOhana need not be the same (unlike the case with the 72-mAELa rAgas, where the ArOhaNa and the avarOhaNa consist of the same set of notes). This gives us 72 different ways of constructing the ArOhaNa and 72 different and independent ways of constructing the avarOhaNa---a total of 72*72=5184 different SudhDha-meSra mAELa rAgas as mentioned at the start of this paragraph. 72 of the 5184 SudhDha-meSra mAELas are identical with the 72 standard SudhDha mAELa rAgas, while the remaining 5112 are meSra mAELas.
The names for the SudhDha-meSra mAELas are derived from those for the standard mAELa rAgas (the names for which are in turn based on the katapayAdhe sangKya). The first two syllables (with the standard exceptions to the syllabic rules) of the mAELa which form the ArohaNa and the avarOhaNa of the SudhDha-meSra mAELa are concatenated (in that order) to get the name of the new mAELa. For example, the meSra mAELa whose ArohaNa is that of mAyAmALavagAULa and whose avarOhaNa is that of hAEmavathE will take the name mAyA-hAEma. Using more than two syllables is allowed so that more euphonious names can be constructed, as in kanaka-raseka (rather than kana-rase). Of course, hare-hare is the SudhDha-meSra name for the mAELa harekAmBOjE.
SudhDha-meSra mAELa rAgas are difficult to even comprehend, for the simple reason that no one performs them (save a few exceptions, see below). The proper handling of these mAELas requires proficiency of a high order. Some of the well-known karNAtaka BAShAngga rAgas are classifiable as meSra mAELas. BIravE is Kara-nATa while muKArE is naTa-Kara. Therefore, a rAga like kAUShe-kAnadA will be a janya of naTa-Kara (assuming that mAlkAUns (or hendhOLam) is a janya of naTaBIravE and dharbAre-kAnadA is a janya of KaraharapreyA). Likewise, jOg-kAUns will be a janya of cala-naTa (calanAtta and naTaBIravE) or a janya of cala-kEra (calanAtta and kEravANE) depending on the neShAdha used in the rAga.
Another enhancement to the mAELa scheme is to include dhve-maDhyama panjcama-varja rAgas. As the name indicates, these scales have both SudhDha and prathe maDhyamas and no panjcama. This adds 36 additional possibilities for both the ArOhaNa and the avarOhaNa. Therefore, the total number of possible SudhDha-meSra dhve-maDhyama panjcama-varja mAELa rAgas is 11664 (108*108). The names of the dhve-maDhyama mAELas are constructed from the katapayAdhe names of the corresponding Sudha-maDhyama mAELa by adding the -SrE suffix (e.g. kanaka-SrE, rathna-SrE and so on). These names should then be folded into the nomenclature of the SudhDha-meSra mAELa rAgas described above.
[ Indian Classical Music | Krishna Kunchithapadam ]
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