In an earlier article, we surveyed several systems of Raga classification used in Indian Classical music, with all of them sharing a common thread, namely, the concept of a parent Raga and a derivative Raga. The parent and derivative Ragas share a common tuning system and note intervals.
In this series of articles, we select some popular Ragas, analyze their scales and examine the parent-child relationship between them. We looked at Ragas Kalyani, Hamsadhwani and Hindol in these two articles (part 1 and part 2).
For this article, we have selected two Ragas, namely, Shankarabharanam and Kaushika Dhwani.
Raga Shankarabharanam is a very popular Raga which is performed all over India, in various traditions, including Hindustani and Carnatic. It is popularly known as Raga Bilawal in North India. Raga Kaushika Dhwani is quite popular too. It is also known as Raga Bhinna Shadaj.
By means of this article, we will see how these Ragas relate to each other and how they can be seen to share a common tuning system.
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. Here are a few fragments of phrases which are used to construct musical phrases in Raga Shankarabharanam.
Ga Re Ga Pa ma Ga
Ni' Re Ga ma Ga Pa
Ga Pa Dha ma Ga
Sa Ga Re Pa ma Ga Re Sa
Pa Ni Dha Ni SA
SA Ni Dha Pa ma Ga Pa ma Ga Re Ni' Sa
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:
Ga Re Ga Pa ma Ga starts with Ga and uses it prominently. So it would sound pleasing if (Sa,Ga) is an Antara Gandhar interval.
Similarly, Ga Pa Dha ma Ga would sound pleasing if (ma,Dha) is an Antara Gandhar interval.
If consider the phrase Sa Ga Re Pa ma Ga Re Sa, setting (Re,Pa) to Madhyam would bring beauty to the phrase since (Sa,Ga) is already a consonant Anatara Gandhara interval.
For the phrase Pa Ni Dha Ni SA, setting (Pa,Ni) to Antara Gandhar not only gives a consonant interval but also brings symmetery to the Uttarang (upper half of the octave) similar to the (Sa,Ga) interval in the Poorvanga (lower half of the octave).
A by-product of these consonant intervals is that (Ga,Ni) becomes a Pancham interval!
Note that setting (Re,Pa) to Madhyam, means that Re and Dha are not mutually consonant. So, it is best to avoid phrases like Re Ga Pa Dha ma Ga Re or Pa Dha ma Ga Re etc where (Re,Dha) interval is prominently used.
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 Shankarabharanam can be built using the Scale Builder tool with the following inter-note relationships.
(Sa,Ga) = I(G)
(Sa,ma) = I(m)
(Sa,Pa) = I(P)
(ma,Dha) = I(G)
(Pa,Ni) = I(G)
(Re,Pa) = 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.
Before we compare Raga Shankarabharanam with Raga Kaushika Dhwani, let us start with the drone track for Raga Shankarabharanam. Click Start below and listen to the drone track for some time.
Drone for Raga Shankarabharanam
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.
Ga Re Ga Pa ma Ga Pa Ni Dha Ni SA 2
SA Ni Dha Pa Dha ma Ga Re Pa ma Ga Re Sa 2Raga Kaushika Dhwani is a pentatonic Raga with the scale Sa Ga ma Dha Ni. Here we present it as a derivative of Raga Shankarabharanam.
The important inter-note relationships in Raga Kaushika Dhwani are as follows:
(Sa,Ga) = I(G)
(Sa,ma) = I(m)
(ma,Dha) = I(G)
(Ga,Ni) = I(P)
If you observe closely, you can see that these relationships are already present among those listed for Raga Shankarabharanam. So, by dropping Pa and Re (which are Varjit or prohibited), we can arrive at the required scale with the required symmetry for Raga Kaushika Dhwani. All the notes have such wonderful consonance intervals!
Some Shankarabharanam phrases can directly be rendered in Raga Kaushika Dhwani just by dropping the Varjit notes. For example, the Shankarabharanam phrase Dha Pa Dha ma Ga can be rendered in Kaushika Dhwani as Dha ma Ga. It also has its own characteristic phrases such as Dha' Ni' Sa Ga ma Ga Sa, Ga ma Dha Ni Dha ma Ga, where the important intervals of (Sa,Ga), (ma',Dha) and (Ga,Ni) are used prominently.
Ni' Dha' Ni' Sa Ga 2 Sa Ga ma Dha 2 ma Dha Ni SA 2
SA Ni Dha ma Ga ma Dha ma Ga Sa Ni' Sa 2Raga Hamsadhwani is a pentatonic Raga with the scale Sa Re Ga Pa Ni. Earlier, we have presented it as a derivative of Raga Kalyani (part 1 and part 2). Here we see how the tuning of Raga Hamsadhwani described in part 2 linked above, is equally related to Raga Shankarabharanam.
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 Shankarabharanam. 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. So this tuning of Raga Hamsadhwani can be considered a part of the tuning systems of Raga Kalyani or Raga Shankarabharanam, and can be played with either of the supporting drone tracks.
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 2In this article, we looked at Ragas Shankarabharanam and Kaushika Dhwani. We examined a few of their signature phrases and applied the basic intervals of Pancham, Madhyam and Antara Gandhar to tune the scale for making it aesthetically appealing. We found that the note relationships and symmetry required for Raga Kaushika Dhwani are present in Raga Shankarabharanam.
Thus, Raga Shankarabharanam can be considered a parent Raga, while Raga Kaushika Dhwani can be considered a derivative Raga. 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 Shankarabharanam. We also noted that Raga Hamsadhwani can be considered a derivative of Raga Shankarabharanam under this tuning system.
A keen listener would have noticed that Re and Dha were not mutually consonant in this tuning. It is possible to construct an alternative tuning where (Re,Dha) is set to Pancham. As a consequence, in the alternative tuning, Re and Pa are not mutually consonant. We explore this alternative tuning, in the next article.
Comparison of RagasComparison of RagasLakshyaLakshyaLakshanaLakshanaShankarabharanamShankarabharanamKaushika DhwaniKaushika DhwaniBilawalBilawalHamsadhwaniHamsadhwani