Indian Raga

Indian Classical Muisic

The origins of Indian classical music can be found from the oldest of scriptures, part of the Hindu tradition, the Vedas. Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music at length.The Indian classical music has its origin as a meditation tool to attain self realization. All the different forms of these melodies (ragas) affect various “chakras” (energy centers, or “moods”) in the path of the “Kundalini”. There are specific mental, biological and spiritual results associated with activation of these centers.

Indian classical music has one of the most complicated and complete musical systems ever developed. Like Western classical music, it divides the octave into 12 semitones of which the 8 basic notes are Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa, in order, replacing Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do. However, it does not use the equal temperament tuning system.

The two main streams of Indian classical music are:

 

  • Hindustani music, from North India, and

 

  • Carnatic music (Karnataka Sangeeth), from South India.

The prime themes of Hindustani music are Rasleela (Hindu devotionals) of Krishna and Nature in all its splendour. There have been many great exponents of this music; some of them are Allauddin Khan, Vilayat Khan, Omkarnath Thakur, Bismillah Khan. Gangubai Hangal, Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Ravi Shankar, Pt. Vijay Raghav Rao, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Zakir Hussain, Shivkumar Sharma, Annapurna Devi, Ali Akbar Khan, Aashish Khan, Kishori Amonkar, and Satyasheel Deshpande are among the arts’ most notable living performers.

Indian classical music is monophonic and based around a single melody line which is played over a fixed drone. The performance is based melodically on one particular raga begins with the performers coming out in a ritualized order: drone instruments, then the soloist, then accompanists and percussionists. The musicians begin by tuning their instruments; this process often blends imperceptibly into the beginning of the music.

Rhythmic cycles are known as tala. In Hindustani music, the tala is normally marked by the tabla.

Indian musical instruments typically used in North Indian classical music include sitar, sarod, tambura, bansuri, shenai, sarangi, and tabla. Instruments typically used in Carnatic music include gottuvadyam, veena, mridangam, kanjira, and violin. The fundamental authoritative book on the subject, Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya was based on years of research carried out by Dr. Lalmani Misra.

Players of the tabla, a type of drum, begin by tapping the edges with a hammer to make sure it is in tune with the soloist. Another common instrument is the stringed tambura (sometimes also called tanpura), which is played at a steady tone (a drone) throughout the raga. This task traditionally falls to a student of the soloist, a task which might seem monotonous but is, in fact, an honour and a rare opportunity for the student who gets it.

The beginning of the raga is called an alap in Hindustani music and an alapana in Carnatic music. Many aficionados consider the alap their favourite part, but the alap is often inaccessible to others. It is widely considered that a proper rendering of any raga will take more than half an hour.

In Hindustani music, once the raga is established, the ornamentation around the mode begins to become rhythmical, gradually speeding up. This section is called the jor. After the jor climaxes, everything stops and the audiences applaud. Finally, the percussionist begins to play as the tala is introduced, interacting with the soloist, eventually reaching the spontaneous and competitive jhala section.

Carnatic raga elaborations are generally much faster in tempo and shorter. The opening piece is called a varnam, and is a warm-up for the musicians. A devotion and a request for a blessing follows, then a series of interchanges between ragams (unmetered melody) and thaalams (the ornamentation, equivalent to the jor). This is intermixed with hymns called krithis. This is followed by the pallavi or theme from the raga. Carnatic pieces can also be fixed; these are famous compositions that are popular among those who appreciate Carnatic (especially vocal) music.

Carnatic music is similar to Hindustani music in that it is mostly improvised (see musical improvisation), but it is much more influenced by theory and has stricter rules. It emphasizes the expertise of the voice rather than that of the instruments. Primary themes include Devi worship, Rama worship, descriptions of temples and patriotic songs. Sri Purandara Dasa(1480 - 1564) is known as the father of Carnatic music. Tyagaraja (1759 - 1847), Muthuswami Dikshitar (1776 - 1827) and Syama Sastri (1762 - 1827) are know as Trinity of Carnatic music. Among the most popular living performers are D. K. Pattammal, Dr.M.Balamuralikrishna, Dr. K. J. Yesudas, T V Sankaranarayanan and Madurai T N Seshagopalan. M. S. Subbulakshmi was one of the greatest carnatic vocalists ever. M L Vasanthakumari, G N Balasubramaniam, Dr. S. Ramanathan, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Vidwan. Gopala Pillai are famous musical legends who lived in the last century.
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Indian Raga for beginners

Indian raga Guide
Part 1:


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4

Mixed Indian Classical

14 Responses to “Indian Raga”

  1. sajal Says:
    July 18th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

    Thank you very much for giving the opportunity of downloading various songs.

  2. Partho Datta Says:
    July 26th, 2007 at 4:35 pm

    In one word - Amazing

  3. Partho Datta Says:
    July 27th, 2007 at 5:28 am

    Thanks for downloading these rare collections of Quite good qualities. I am requesting to add some Ragas played by violin.

  4. Abhishek Says:
    July 29th, 2007 at 11:24 am

    What a collection…..!!!!!!!!!!!!

  5. ICM Says:
    August 20th, 2007 at 10:43 am

    New Website
    Personal Library of Indian classical music - a possible reality!

    Dear Lovers of Indian Classical Music,

    We have put together a website for discussing and sharing of Indian Classical Music. We are planning to have a lot of links to high quality music both Hindustani and Carnatic. In time to come, this might become the biggest library for ICM in the world (on the net).

    We welcome you to be a part of our endeavor and do your best to serve the interests of ICM lovers.

    Easiest way to start would be to register and put up the links to the music that has already been uploaded on to file sharing servers like Rapidupload, Megaupload, esnips, Mediafire, etc

    We would also like you to forward this message to your classical music friends.

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    Thanking you,

  6. Stefanos Says:
    September 8th, 2007 at 1:01 am

    Cool.

  7. Jeevan Says:
    September 10th, 2007 at 4:22 am

    Exellent site. I was wondering if you can provide name of the TAAL’s played on Tabla for some of the famous bhajans or any bhajans.

    Thanks

  8. Jyothi Says:
    December 23rd, 2007 at 7:48 pm

    Gr8 Ragas….Very Gud Collections..

  9. Jyothi Says:
    December 23rd, 2007 at 9:15 pm

    Hi Friends,

    Iam not able to dowanload this ragas..Please help me how to download raga stuffs….Im very much eager to download this ragas….Please help me..

    Thanks

  10. Rumie Says:
    March 1st, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    Hi there,

    Impossible good collection of Indian Ragas
    Must say…..

    Thanks

  11. sidni Says:
    March 18th, 2008 at 9:48 am

    Dear,Friend
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  12. diwakar Says:
    May 7th, 2008 at 5:07 am

    dear,

    unbelievable collection, please help to download these collection. And many many thanks to prevent the indian tradition of music.
    thanks

  13. ravi Says:
    June 16th, 2008 at 11:16 am

    how can i download the classical music from this site.

  14. Eshwar Says:
    October 25th, 2008 at 9:35 am

    Nice collections how to download them ?

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