Background
A "raga" in Sanskrit means a melody which is pleasing to the ear therefore a raga must consist of a melody or a scale and must be pleasant to listen to. According to Pandit Bhatkhande all ragas are derived from "thaats" or scales. Thaats form the derivative scales for all ragas according to the shastras. Thaats are sampoorna or complete and consist of all the seven notes present in hindustaani music. The notes may however be present in either komal or tivra or shuddh forms in the thaat depending on the scale. There are ten thaats according to Pt Bhatkande they are, Purvi, Asavari, Bhairavi, Kafi, Khamaj, Bhairav, Todi, Marwa,Bilaval and Kalyan. From each thaat many ragas are derived, the thaat raga or the raga which consists of the notes belonging to that thaat is also known as the janak raga and the other ragas belonging to that thaat are known as janya ragas. the Thaat system has however been criticised for its imperfections by many scholars. We find that many ragas consisting of notes outside the purview of a thaat belong to it. For example in the bilaval thaat all seven notes are shuddha or natural in their form but raga Alhaiya Bilawal belonging to the same thaat consists of both the komal as well as the shuddha nishabh. Therefore it maybe said that though the thaat system most definitely helped in classifying ragas under scales it is not rid of flaws.
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