Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c8.76

c8.76

The Northern and the Southern systems of classification, originaly, involved no fundamental difference of principles. In the Southern system, the derivative melodies were called ‘janyas’ or derivatives of the major melodies which were called janakas or ‘fathers’ (later called melakas, or unifiers). In the Northern system, the minor melodies were picturesquely called ‘wives’ of the major melodies, and the later derivatives, designated as sons (putras), just as in the Southern system the ‘janyas’ are in the position of the sons of the ‘janakas’ (the fathers).