raga

A rāga (from the Sanskrit rañj, "to colour" or "to delight") is the foundational melodic concept of both the Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) classical traditions. It is not a mere scale but a grammar of melody: each rāga prescribes a set of permitted svaras (notes drawn from the seven shuddha and five vikrit tones of the saptak), an ascending line (āroha) and descending line (avaroha), a dominant note (vādī), a secondary note (samvādī), and signature melodic phrases (pakad or chalan). The theoretical codification is ancient — Bharata's Nāṭyaśāstra (c. 200 BCE–200 CE) discusses jāti and grāma-rāga, Matanga's Bṛhaddeśī (c. 8th–9th century CE) is the first text to use the word rāga in its modern musical sense, and Sārṅgadeva's Saṅgītaratnākara (13th century) systematised it further before later Persian-influenced syntheses.

In practice a rāga must contain a minimum of five notes; it is classified by the number of notes used as audava (five), shādava (six) or sampūrṇa (seven). The Hindustani tradition organises rāgas under the thāṭ system of ten parent scales devised by Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande in the early twentieth century, while the Carnatic tradition uses the melakarta system of 72 parent scales formalised by Venkatamakhin in his Caturdaṇḍī Prakāśikā (1660). A defining feature is the association of each rāga with a samaya (prescribed time of performance) — Bhairav at dawn, Yaman and Bhīmpalāsī in the evening — and with a rasa or emotional flavour. The medieval rāgamālā paintings visualised rāgas as deities or human figures, pairing them with rāgiṇīs (consort melodies).

Named exemplars illustrate the system: Rāga Yaman (Kalyan thāṭ) uses the sharpened tīvra Madhyam; Rāga Darbāri Kānaḍā is attributed to Mian Tansen in Akbar's court; and Rāga Mēgh/Mēgh Malhār is traditionally linked with monsoon and rain. In the Carnatic canon, Mayamāḷavagauḷa is the conventional first rāga taught to beginners, and the Trinity — Tyāgarāja, Muttuswāmi Dīkṣitar and Śyāma Śāstri (18th–19th century) — composed thousands of kṛtis across hundreds of rāgas. As of 2026 the rāga tradition remains living and globally performed, with several Indian classical forms inscribed in discourse around UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage recognition.

For the UPSC examination, rāga falls squarely within the Art and Culture component of General Studies Paper I (Prelims and Mains GS-I). Typical question angles include: matching rāgas or musical texts to their authors (Bhatkhande's thāṭ vs Venkatamakhin's melakarta), distinguishing Hindustani from Carnatic features, identifying the Nāṭyaśāstra and Saṅgītaratnākara as primary sources, and connecting rāgas to performance time, rasa theory and rāgamālā painting. Candidates should master the technical vocabulary — āroha, avaroha, vādī, samvādī, thāṭ, melakarta — and the chronology of texts, since prelims frequently tests precise authorship and definitions rather than appreciation.