In an earlier article, we analyzed three Ragas: Kalyani, Hamsadhwani and Hindol and saw how they were related to one another. During the analysis, we made a choice to maintain the intervals (Re,Ma) and (Pa,Ni) as symmetrical. As a keen reader or listener would have observed, this resulted in the note Ga not being Antara Gandhar but slightly sharper in pitch. If you have not read the article and listened to the analysis and audio demos, then you may want to do so.
In this article, we analyze the same three Ragas and construct a common scale for them, by treating the intervals (Sa,Ga) and (Pa,Ni) as symmetrical. Read on, if you are keen to find out how the scale changes subtly because of this choice.
Before we begin, let us start with the concept of the fundamental note Sa. In Indian Classical music, all musical notes are defined based on their relationship with Sa. You can use the settings below to set the Sa to any pitch you prefer. All the demos on this page would play according to this setting.
Common Parameters
Next, it is useful to familiarize ourselves with the four basic intervals of Dviguna (octave), Pancham (fifth), Madhyam (fourth) and Gandhar (major third). You can play and check these intervals using the keyboard below (just click Start to activate and tap a key to play). Here Sa denotes the fundamental and Ga, ma, Pa and SA denote the Gandhar, Madhyam, Pancham and Dviguna respectively. Note that the notes here do not match up with today's standard 12 tone equally tempered scale.
As you can hear, Pancham, Madhyam and Gandhar are pleasant sounding intervals. For the musically inclined, they may be recognisable by ear. These are the most fundamental intervals in Indian Classical music which a trained musician is expected to recognize with a fine level of precision.
Let us start by examining some common phrases in Raga Kalyani. Here are a few fragments of phrases which are used to construct musical phrases in Raga Kalyani.
Ga Re Sa Ni' Re Ga
Ma Ga Re Sa Ni' Re Pa Ma Ga
Pa Ma Ga Re Ga Ma Dha Pa
Ma Dha Ni Dha Pa
Ga Ma Dha Ni Dha Pa
Based on these phrase fragments, we can deduce the note relationships required for the phrases to sound correct and aesthetically appealing. Using the basic intervals introduced above, we can see that:
In the first two phrases, one can see Ga, Ni' and Sa being prominently used. In phrases like Ni' Re Ga and Ni' Re Pa Ma Ga it would be aesthetically pleasing if Ni' and Ga have a consonant relationship.
In the phrases Sa Ni' Re Ga and Sa Ni' Re Pa Ma Ga it would be good to have a consonant relationship between Sa and Ga.
In this tuning, since (Re,Ma) is not a consonant relationship, it would be best to avoid phrases which emphasise the pairing of these notes.
The third phrase suggests a symmetric relationship between the intervals (Ga,Pa) and (Ma,Dha).
The last two phrases establish a consonant relationship between (Pa,Ni) and (Ga,Ni).
It is important to note that in addition to the phrases, it is equally important to pay attention to the timing of notes in a phrase, and the usage characteristics like Alpatva, Bahutva, Hrasva or Deergha of the notes in the phrase to determine the appropriate pairings.
Using the above analysis of the phrases, the scale for Raga Kalyani can be built using the Scale Builder tool with the following inter-note relationships.
(Sa,Pa) = I(P)
(Re,Pa) = I(m)
(Sa,Ga) = I(G)
(Ga,Pa) = (Ma,Dha)
(Ga,Ni) = I(P)
(Ga,Dha) = I(m)
The above relationships result in the following scale. Click Start below to expand the scale controls. Then play each note one at a time. For each note, observe how it sounds in relation to other notes in the scale.
Note : Being an artistic tradition, Indian Classical music uses both objective and subjective criteria to characterize Ragas. Bearing that in mind, there is an element of subjectivity involved in the process of selecting signature phrases in a Raga and then applying the basic intervals to those phrases to make them aesthetically appealing. However, once the inter-note relationships are fixed, the scale can be objectively and mathematically derived with microtonally accurate tuning.
Before we compare Raga Kalyani with Raga Hamsadhwani and Raga Hindol, let us start with the drone track for Raga Kalyani. Click Start below and listen to the drone track for some time.
Drone for Raga Kalyani
After you have spent some time and feel comfortable with the drone track, you can move to the subsequent sections. Let the drone track continue to play while you read and listen to the remainder of this article.
Note that the drone has been tuned to support the Kalyani scale derived above and to emphasize the associated note relationships.
Here are some simple phrases to understand the scale and structure of Raga Kalyani.
Ga Re Sa 2 Ni' Re Ga 2 Ma Ga Pa Ma Dha Pa 2 Ni 2 Dha Pa Ma Dha Ni SA 2
SA Ni Dha Pa Ma Ga Pa Ma Ga 2 Re Ga Re Ni' Sa 2Raga Hamsadhwani is a pentatonic Raga with the scale Sa Re Ga Pa Ni. Here we present it as a derivative of Raga Kalyani.
The important inter-note relationships in Raga Hamsadhwani are as follows:
(Sa,Pa) = I(P)
(Pa',Re) = I(P)
(Pa,Ni) = I(G)
If you observe closely, you can see that these relationships are already present among those listed for Raga Kalyani. So, by dropping Ma and Dha (which are Varjit or prohibited), we can arrive at the required scale with the required symmetry for Raga Hamsadhwani.
Many of the Kalyani phrases can directly be rendered in Raga Hamsadhwani just by dropping the Varjit notes. For example, the Kalyani phrase Ga Re Sa Ni' Re Ga can be rendered in Hamsadhwani as it is! The Kalyani phrase Ma Ga Re Sa Ni' Re Pa Ma Ga can be rendered by dropping the Ma, and it would be a completely valid phrase in Raga Hamsadhwani. It also has its own characteristic phrases such as Ga Re Ga Pa Ni Pa, Ga Re Ni' Pa' Re Sa, where the important intervals of (Pa,Ni) and (Pa',Re) are used prominently.
Note that some musicians and musicologists classify Raga Hamsadhwani under Raga Shankarabharanam. The scale of Raga Shankarabharanam is Sa Re Ga ma Pa Dha Ni. Raga Hamsadhwani can be derived by dropping ma and Dha. In fact, the tuning of Raga Hamsadhwani presented here is equally related to Raga Kalyani and Raga Shankarabharanam. Read this article to see how Raga Hamsadhwani relates to Raga Shankarabharanam.
Here are some simple phrases to understand the scale and structure of Raga Hamsadhwani.
Ga Re Sa Re Ga 2 Ga Re Ga Pa Ni 2 SA 2
SA Ni Pa Ga 2 Ni 2 Pa Ga Pa Ga Re Sa 2Raga Hindol is widely accepted to be related to Raga Kalyani. Indeed, it can be arrived at by dropping Re and Pa from Kalyani to yield the scale Sa Ga Ma Dha Ni.
Raga Hindol uses the symmetry (Ma,Dha) = (Dha,SA) and (Sa,Ga) = Antara Gandhara interval. Again, if you observe closely, you can see that these relationships are already present in Raga Kalyani.
Some characteristic phrases of Raga Hindol using these Lakshanas would be Sa Ga Ma Ga SA and SA Ni Dha Ma Ga.
Here are some simple phrases to understand the scale and structure of Raga Hindol.
Sa Ga Sa 2 Ni' Dha' Sa 2 Ga Ma Dha 2 Ma Dha SA 2
SA Ni Dha Ma Ga 2 Ma Ga Sa 2Like in the previous article, here again we looked at Ragas Kalyani, Hamsadhwani and Hindol. Taking into account the different tuning, we examined a few of their signature phrases. We found that the note relationships and symmetry required for Raga Hamsadhwani and Raga Hindol are present in Raga Kalyani.
Thus, Raga Kalyani can be considered a parent Raga, while Raga Hamsadhwani and Raga Hindol can be considered as derivative Ragas. They share a common tuning system and some common Lakshanas. Therefore, they can be performed with the same drone tuning which supports the complete scale of Raga Kalyani.
The remarkable observation is that the mutual relationship between these three Ragas works regardless of whether (Re,Ma) is taken as symmetrical to (Pa,Ni) (as in the previous article) or whether (Sa,Ga) is taken as symmetrical to (Pa,Ni) (as taken here).
Comparison of RagasComparison of RagasLakshyaLakshyaLakshanaLakshanaKalyaniKalyaniHamsadhwaniHamsadhwaniHindolHindolYamanYaman