Rāga Delineation

Abstract

In the first chapter some of the essential points of rāga characterization have been described, whereas the second and the third chapters were concerned with the practical methods of approaching a rāga, i.e. the styles. It has been stressed that a rāga is a melodic entity which has internal unity and coherence as if it were an independent being with a definite character of its own. Of course the tone material provides a backbone in the explanation of the laws of internal coherence, as this is largely based on harmonic relations of perfect fifths and fourths.¹ Yet, a study of the rāgas and the rāga system should not blindly start from the scales. Rather, it appears when one comes to know the subtle problems of Indian music, that a given rāga is strongly connected with compositions in that rāga. In many cases of rare or obsolete rāgas the musical implications are known through a very small number of vocal compositions.² We have reliable information about several rāgas being composed on the lines of folksongs.³ Some rāgas are not yet fully established and keep their strong relation to folk tunes.⁴ As long as the tunes belong to folk music they may show variations that confuse performer and composer, although the main outline is identical. To really absorb them into the classical system this irregularity must be eliminated. It is not improbable that the majority of rāgas have such folk roots.⁵ Even to this day one feels that raga is an abstraction, in a sense a musical classification of similar compositions.