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.
Read more about this topic: Puriya Dhanashree
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)