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Given a Raga, there exist several compositions which obey

the rules of that Raga and effectively convey its mood.

It is common for the words to assist in conveying the mood.

For example, monsoon-related ragas have compositions

that describe the clouds, rains, thunder, etc.

There are about 50 common ragas, another 100 that are

quite common, and around 200 that are relatively rare.

These include mixture ragas, obtained by combining 2 or

more pure ragas.

At any given instant, a mixture Raga will convey the mood

of one of its component Ragas, but it ows smoothly from

one component to the other, and creates a beautiful effect.

Girish Sahani, Amol Deshmukh and Rohit Bassi Concept of Raga in Hindustani Classical MusicIntroduction

Structural features of Raga

Characteristics of Raga

Classication of Ragas

Ragas in performance

The light ragas, used in folk melodies and popular songs,

allow some freedom to add extra notes.

The serious ragas have more denite rules and they can

be elaborated in performances.

Ragas are often illustrated , especially in Rajasthani

paintings.

The paintings have inscriptions, for example:

”Out of the lake, in a shrine of crystal, she worships Shiva

with songs punctuated by the beat. This fair one, this bright

one is...Bhairavi.”

Girish Sahani, Amol Deshmukh and Rohit Bassi Concept of Raga in Hindustani Classical MusicIntroduction

Structural features of Raga

Characteristics of Raga

Classication of Ragas

Ragas in performance

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Structural features of Raga

3 Characteristics of Raga

4 Classication of Ragas

5 Ragas in performance

Girish Sahani, Amol Deshmukh and Rohit Bassi Concept of Raga in Hindustani Classical MusicIntroduction

Structural features of Raga

Characteristics of Raga

Classication of Ragas

Ragas in performance

Classication of Ragas

Ragas can be classied using different criterias. For

example, on basis of the number of notes used.

Ragas that contain all 7 notes in ascent and descent are

Sampurna, those with 6 notes are Shadav, those with 5

are Audav.

All ragas are divided into two groups as Poorva Ragas and

Uttar Ragas.

Poorva Ragas are sung between 12 noon and 12 midnight,

Uttar Ragas between midnight and 12 noon.

Another division of ragas is the classication of raga

The rst derivatives of the ragas are called raginis, and

each of the ve ragas have ve raginis under them.

These raga and raginis also have derivatives. this results

in each principal raga having 16 secondary derivatives

known as upa-raga and upa-raganis.

An important way of Raga classication is the thaat

system.

A certain arrangement of the seven notes with the change

of shuddha, komal and teevra is called a thaat.

Every raga has a xed number of komal or teevra notes,

from which the thaat can be recognised.

Girish Sahani, Amol Deshmukh and Rohit Bassi Concept of Raga in Hindustani Classical MusicIntroduction

Structural features of Raga

Characteristics of Raga

Classication of Ragas

Ragas in performance

There are several opinions in this matter. A

under ve principal ragas : Hindol, Deepak, Megh, Shree

and Maulkauns. From these ve ragas, other ragas are

derived.

Girish Sahani, Amol Deshmukh and Rohit Bassi Concept of Raga in Hindustani Classical MusicIn