Ragas

Two lines on a board

These pages hold seventy-four Hindustani ragas, sorted into Bhatkhande's ten thaats with a page for each. Every raga is written as two lines, its aroha, the way up, and its avaroha, the way down, with its vadi and samvadi ringed and a button that plays it on the harmonium. Pick a thaat, start with its gentlest raga, and stay with that one until both lines sit in your voice. In Durga both lines leave out Ga and Ni, and the voice must cross those spaces without filling them.

Sing the ascent, stop, then read the descent as its own line, not as the ascent reversed. Notice where notes drop out or return and where the line turns. Keep the harmonium slow enough that your eyes arrive before your fingers.

What the two lines leave out

A teacher singing the same notes adds what no notebook records. A raga has chalan, its characteristic movement, and pakad, a recognisable phrase or turn; meend is a glide between notes, andolan a slow oscillation around one. These pages give the two lines, not those. Bageshri's turn in descent shows the order of its notes, not how a singer joins or weighs them. The lines are also one common reading, and two teachers can write different versions without either being careless.

Vadi and samvadi

The vadi is the note a raga leans on; the samvadi is its partner, usually a fourth or fifth away. Each card rings both, Ga and Dha in Bhupali, Ga and Ni in Yaman. Rest on the vadi when the line reaches it, and with a teacher's phrases try beginning or ending there instead of hurrying to Sa; give the samvadi its own turn.

Ten shelves

A thaat sorts ragas by their notes, a shelf rather than a grammar, so Durga and Bihag share Bilawal without asking the voice for the same work. Bilawal is the reference, seven shuddha, or unaltered, notes. Komal means lowered; tivra means raised and applies here to Ma. A raga can leave out notes of its thaat's scale or use a form from outside it.

Of the seventy-four, Bilawal holds nine, Kalyan eleven, Khamaj eight, Bhairav nine, Kafi seventeen, Asavari five, Bhairavi four, Poorvi three, Marwa four and Todi four.

The same notes, another raga

Bhupali and Deshkar print identical lines on the same five notes. Only the emphasis differs, Bhupali leaning on Ga with Dha as partner and Deshkar the reverse.

Asavari and Jaunpuri share their notes, their descent and their vadi pair, but Jaunpuri admits komal Ni into the ascent. Sing one, then the other, then return to Asavari and check whether that komal Ni tries to join the climb.

Straight and crooked

Kafi's seven-note ascent rises without turning back, and its descent falls without a detour. Gaud Sarang's lines are vakra, crooked, changing direction inside the larger climb or return. Follow each reversal with your eyes before singing, because fingers tend to tidy a crooked line on their own.

Straight does not mean every neighbouring note is present. An audav line uses five note names, a shadav line six, a sampurna line seven, and a seven-note line can still hold both forms of Ma. Count the note names, then check their forms and their order.

What a harmonium can and cannot do here

A key gives a repeatable pitch and plays the written order and rhythm, two forms of a note included, as Yaman Kalyan requires with Ma. It cannot supply a singer's continuous glide or slow oscillation, and its fixed pitches are no model of every raga's vocal intonation. Sing with playback once, then without it, and if a note has moved, check that note rather than singing the whole line louder.

How to use these pages

Press play and listen through before joining in, then sing in sargam, the note names, and in aakar, on an open “aa”. Check first which notes are komal and whether Ma is tivra. A first note below Sa belongs to the lower saptak, or octave; Yaman's ascent begins there, on Ni.

Open one raga in the app, enlarge the notation, slow the playback and rest on its vadi. Keep it in your practice list for a week of riyaz, regular practice, and on the second day sing the descent first, where an assumed mirror often shows itself.

Three to try first

Bhupali, Durga and Kafi suit a beginner's harmonium. Bhupali leaves out Ma and Ni, five notes on a straight route; Durga also uses five but leaves out Ga and Ni, so its spaces fall elsewhere; Kafi keeps all seven, with komal Ga and komal Ni. Bhupali's resting Ga is absent from Durga, and Durga's Ma from Bhupali. Give each its own sitting, and choose one for today rather than switching whenever a line gets hard.