Raga Yoga:
FUNDAMENTALS OF RAG
by David Courtney, Ph.D.

Ragaputra Vardhan, (circa 1790)

The rag is the most important concept that any student of Indian music should understand. The Hindi/Urdu word "rag" is derived from the Sanskrit "raga" which means "colour, or passion" (Apte 1987). It is linked to the Sanskrit word "ranj" which means "to colour" (Apte 1987). Therefore rag may be thought of as an acoustic method of colouring the mind of the listener with an emotion. This is fine as a general concept but what is it musically? It is not a tune, melody, scale, mode, or any concept for which an English word exists. It is instead a combination of different characteristics.
It is these characteristics which define the rag. Here are the characteristics.

There must be the notes of the rag. They are called the swar. This concept is similar to the Western solfege.

There must also be a modal structure. This is called that in North Indian music and mela in carnatic music.

There is also the jati. Jati is the number of notes used in the rag.

There must also be the ascending and descending structure. This is called arohana /avarohana.

Another characteristic is that the various notes do not have the same level of significance. Some are important and others less so. The important notes are called vadi and samavadi

There are often characteristic movements to the rag. This is called either pakad or swarup. The relation between the movements of the rag is called Chalan, or the Map of the rag.

In addition to the main characteristics of rag, For instance rags have traditionally been attributed to particular times of the day. They have also been anthro-pomorphize into families of male and female rags (raga, ragini, putra raga, etc.). There is a tendency to downgrade the importance of these aspects due to their irrational and unscientific nature.

SAMAY - THE TIMES OF INDIAN RAGS

by David Courtney, Ph.D.

Tradition ascribes certain rags to particular times of the day, seasons, or holidays; this is called samay. It is said that appropriate performance may bring harmony, while playing at different times may bring disharmony. It is said that the great Tansen was able to create rain by singing a monsoon rag.

There is not a universal agreement as to the correctness of samay. There are some musicians who argue that a rag must be performed at the time of day that it is assigned; conversely, other musicians argue that one may play a rag at any time if one wishes to evoke the mood of that time. For instance, if one simply wished to evoke the mood of a monsoon day, one could perform Megh Malhar; even in the middle of summer. The concept of samay is complicated by the fact that there are a number of rags that have different times ascribed by different musical traditions (gharanas). If one is disposed to follow the system of samay, one can only accept that it is merely a question of tradition. Attempts to justify the concept by looking at the internal structure of the rag have failed.

For more information on Ragas I recommend to audit or register for classes at
THE ALI AKBRA COLLEGE of MUSIC in San Rafael and read the book:
http://www.aacm.org/concerts.html

Introduction to the Classical Music of North India, The music of Baba Allaudin Gharana as taught by Ali Akbar Khan, you can buy it by mail at: http://www.aacm.org/shop/raga_books.html