Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c8.70

c8.70

The earliest classification of the rāgas has been based on the number of notes used in their structures, according to which they fall under (1) Oḍava (five-notes), (2) Khāḍava (six-notes), and (3) Sampūrṇa (seven-notes) classes, or types. Dattila, the earliest musical authority of some reasonable authenticity, gives another principle of classification (later followed by several text-writers). He catalogues the melodies under 18 jātis (species) of which seven are named after the seven notes and the remaining eleven according to their component notes. This is followed by Bharata, who basing the classification under jātis, evolve from the jātis, a group called grāma-rāgas, which are generic rāgas themselves, derived from the jāti-rāgas. As the two groups of rāgas are classed under two grāmas (scales), seven under ṣaḍja-grāma, and eleven under Madhyama-grāma, they came to be designated as grāma-rāgas.