RAGA MUSIC
       By Danny Birch
	If we are to fully understand the nature of and the intricate process involved in
performing or even intelligently listening to raga music, it is quite inadequate and too
simple to summarize in a few brief comments the structure of this beautiful music. Indeed
true understanding calls for years of immersion in the culture as well as rigorous study
and practice. Only after undertaking such an endeavour, can one hope to feel capable of a
deeper understanding and analysis.
	However, here I intend only to trace the essential and most significant points so that
a novice may begin to get an idea of raga. I will discuss only the information needed for
an elementary understanding of instrumental performance on sarod and sitar. This
discussion will include out of necessity the basic structure of raga in general. It will
also address, in part, the belief system prevalent amongst raga musicians and aficionados.
I will start with the building blocks of a raga.
	Every raga has a number of elements that when used together in a routine formulation
create an identifiable traditional music. First of all a raga has a scale. The ascending
or aroha order and the descending or avaroha order may or may not be identical. For
example a raga may employ five notes in aroha and seven notes in avaroha. A raga may have
a straight succession of notes or it may use a zigzag or vakra series of notes. It may use
a straight succession of notes in aroha while presenting a vakra scale in avaroha or
vice-versa. A particular note or swara may be natural or suddha in aroha and flat or komal
in avaroha. By the way, the first and fifth degree of a raga scale can't be altered either
flat or sharp. In addition, all the altered swara are komal except for the fourth which
can only be made sharp or tivra. Being a completely melodic form, raga developed a huge
number of variations on scales. Having as its basis a mathematically arrived at series of
seventy-two seven swara scales known as mela in the south and thaat in the north, each
raga is derived in whole or in part from one of these. There are calculations by which one
may mathematically produce over thirty thousand variations of scales derived from the
seventy-two seven note ones. However, a raga is much more than a scale or mode. In fact
different ragas can and do make use of the same aroha and avaroha combinations. Moreover,
only perhaps a couple of hundred of the over thirty thousand possible scales are actually
in traditional use.
	Within the aroha and avaroha there are swara of greater or lesser importance. The most
important swara is called the vadi. The vadi is the note that is normally the note towards
which the phrases of a raga gravitate.
	To understand this one has to first realize that a raga is to a great extent
improvised. Only a relatively small section is fixed. The sarod and sitar tradition use
compositions called gat. The gat normally has three sections. The most important and
repetitive section of a gat is the stayi. Stayi literally means permanent. The stayi is
repeated again and again while the tabla improvises on the rhythmic cycle or tala. While
the sarod or sitar improvises, the tabla plays a fixed composition called theka. The theka
is a traditional pattern of drumming that is easily recognized by its beats or matra, its
strokes or bol and its division or bibhag. The instrumentalist usually aims at concluding
the improvised passage or taan on the first matra or sum of the tala whereupon the gat is
rejoined. It's kind of like taking off from a runway, flying your plane around and landing
on the same runway. You come back to the same spot not another location. Frequently the
vadi swara is the destination.
	There are two more parts of a gat. One is called manjha and is more or less an
extension of the stayi mixing in the lower octave or mandra saptak and leading back into
the stayi. The third section is the antara which brings the melody into the upper octave
or tar saptack. Manjha literally means mixture, whereas antara means upper end.
	There is a swara of secondary importance known as samvadi. The samvadi is normally
about a fourth or a fifth from the vadi and acts as a kind of counterbalance. Some gats
and their taans gravitate towards the samvadi. Rarely there is a different swara known as
nyas that supersedes or acts as the vadi even though the vadi is present too.
	There is an identifying phrase in each raga which is called pakad. Pakad means handle.
It is the handle of the raga. Turn the handle and enter the raga!
	A raga is incomplete. Each time a musician performs a raga, he or she must use a
combination of the gat, various taan, some fixed some improvised, their imagination and
technical ability. A raga is not and should never be exactly the same twice! It must be
completed anew at each and every performance.
	In the sitar and sarod tradition there are a number of sections, some or all of which
may be used. If all the sections are used, a raga performance progresses like this. First,
alap, which is a non-rhythmic exposition of the melodic possibilities. It is very deep,
and the phrases are very slowly executed in a logical progression that is learned by
repeated imitation of your guru or ustad over the course of many years of study. Second is
jor alap, also known as jod alap. It introduces uncounted rhythm that progresses in a
similar manner as alap, but gradually increases in tempo or laya. At the end of jor alap
is jhala. Jhala is a very fast rhythmically intricate section that shows the interplay of
the melodic strings called bajki tar or playing strings with the rhythmic strings called
chikari.
	The fourth section introduces the gat accompanied by tabla. First there is the
Masitkhani gat played at a slow tempo, improvised upon and returned to. This is followed
by a Razakhani gat set to a faster laya. The laya gradually gets faster until there is a
final jhala. This time the jhala is set to tala. Almost all traditional gat in the sarod
and sitar tradition are set to a sixteen matra cycle known as teental or trital.
Compositions in other tala are, by and large modern additions to the tradition.
	There is no set time period to complete any section of raga performance. The duration
of a performance depends on the mood of the musician, the limits of imagination or time
constraints due to some scheduling considerations. Nowadays, since people don't have
enough time or patience, the alap is often brief. The jor alap is often omitted together
with the first jhala section. The Masitkhani and Razakhani gats usually constitute the
bulk of a modern performance. Even in this abridged form, a raga performance generally
lasts between twenty to forty-five minutes. If all the sections are utilized, it is not
unusual for a performance to last well over an hour.
	It is important to understand that raga musicians generally believe that a raga is a
living being that has and will always exist. The duty of the performer is to allow the
raga to express itself through the musician's skill and knowledge. It is a kind of
surrender. The raga musician is a sort of medium, and the performance is like a séance.
The audience is involved, not merely being played to. They are witnesses to the
manifestation of the spirit of the raga. The raga will be associated with a human emotion
such as love, mystery, peace, devotion, heroism and so on. The performance should evoke
these emotions. The raga is associated with times of the day such as dawn, morning, noon,
afternoon, sunset, evening, night and midnight. Some are associated with seasons or
religious festivals. Despite the upheaval taking place in South Asian culture over the
past century, these associations have, to a large extent, remained vital. It is believed
that if certain ragas are played correctly, it should rain.
	Raga and nature are intertwined with human emotions and expressed by a devoted
musician in a form that moves the spirit.