Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c8.73

c8.73

Somewhat akin to this classification,—is another classification of rāgas into ‘Śuddha’, ‘Sālaṅka’ and ‘Saṅkīrṇa’. A Śuddha rāga was understood to represent a melody which follows its own individual structural form, without carrying the suggestion of any other melodies. Sālaṅka sometimes called Chāyā-laga, carrying the ‘shadows’, or reflections of other melodies) rāgas are those compounded of two distinct rāgas. It is a ‘mixed’ melody, a compound, or an amalgam of two rāgas, a ‘hybrid’. In Rāga-taraṅginī, a chapter is devoted to describing the component modes of hybrid melodies. Some masters e.g. those in the course of Mān Thomar, specialised in evolving new types of hybrid melodies by combining well-known modes. This combination of melodies is technically called ‘crossing of modes’ (rāga-śaṅkara). Hence, a mode derived by crossing more than two melodies can be known as saṅkīrṇas (cross-breeds). This principle of classification survives in the Nāṭya-locana, which cites 44 melodies of the Śuddha type, 16 of the Sālaṅka type, and 22 of the ‘Sandhi’ (probably an equivalent of Saṅkīrṇa) types.