Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c8.54

c8.54

In an excellent paper² read before the Fourth All-India Music Conference at Lucknow (1925), Pandit V. N. Bhatkhande, expounding the time theory of rāgas, has pointed out the two-fold division of the rāgas into (i) Pūrva rāgas i.e. rāgas fit to be sung between mid-day and mid-night and (ii) Uttara rāgas i.e., rāgas fit to be sung between mid-night and mid-day. The significance of this classification with reference to the time theory is thus explained by him: “Now it will be observed that in the case of rāgas falling under the first division (Pūrva rāgas) the vādī note will be one of the following notes: sa, ri, ga, ma, invariably, and that in the case of the rāgas falling under the second division (Uttara rāgas), the vādī note will be one of the following notes: ma, pa, dha, ni, sa. The whole scale for this purpose is supposed to be made up of two “Aṅgas,” (parts), namely, the Pūrvāṅga, and the Uttarāṅga. The Pūrvāṅga extends from ‘Sa’ to ‘Pa’, and the Uttarāṅga from ‘Ma’ to ‘Sa’. In other words, then, in the case of the Pūrva rāgas, the vādī note always falls within the Pūrvāṅga and in the case of the Uttara rāgas, the vādī note always falls within the Uttarāṅga. From this you will see, that the proper location of the vādī note will enable you to determine whether a particular rāga is to be sung between mid-day and mid-night, or between mid-night and mid-day.”³ The relation of the time to be assigned to the Pūrvāṅga rāgas inter se is determined on another principle deduced from the structure of the rāgas. For this purpose rāgas can be divided into three groups: (i) Group taking sharp-ri, -ga, and -dha. (ii) Group taking flat-ri, and sharp-ga and -ni. (iii) Group taking flat -ga and -ni.⁴