The Music of Hindostan c11.194

c11.194

The next thing is to consider the list of *Rāgs* as a whole. We notice that they are re-entrant: that is, they return upon themselves after making the full circle as, by an accepted adjustment, our keys do, but as our modes do not.¹ The order here adopted is to show this; it is not the order of the native treatises. Any point might have been, and the simplest form of our major scale, is taken as the point of departure. Nos. 1–5 are transilient, and modes of each other. Nos. 6–8 transitional. No. 9, the major scale. Nos. 10–14 substitute B♭ for B♮. Nos. 15–21 flatten the E as well. Nos. 22–5, the B♭ and E♭ are fully established. No. 26, anomalous. Nos. 27, 28, A flattened. Nos. 29–31, though they seem to show a good deal of licence, are really transitional between the two-flat and the four-flat scale.¹ Nos. 32, 33, D♭ (of some sort) established. At this point the European circle of modes stops, because the next modal shift would flatten the G. This mode with a flat Fifth will be discussed later under *Sāman* chant. The *Rāgs* proceed, after reaching four flats, by sharpening the leading note to the tonic and then the leading note to the Fourth as well.² No. 34, B♮. Nos. 35–8, B♮, E♮. No. 39, a tentative sharpening of F, as the leading note to the Fifth. Nos. 40, 41, the F sharpened instead of the E♭. Nos. 42–8, all three leading notes sharpened. Nos. 49–52, after a little remaining hesitation over the A♭ and D♭ we get back in Nos. 52–63, through the *Kaliāns*, to the place we started from. These sixty-three are only the best known out of some hundreds of *Rāgs*; but to have shown them all would only have taken the principle of re-entrance to another place of decimals, as it were.