ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF RAGA ..SAKSHI MAKKAR

                                        Origin and development of Raga

The modes are called Ragas.") In the ancient texts of Hinduism, the term for the technical

mode part of rāga was Jati. Later, Jati evolved to mean quantitative class of scales, while

räga evolved to become a more sophisticated concept that included the experience of the

audience.

                                               Raga...

Also spelled rag (in northern India) or ragam (in southern India), (from Sanskrit, meaning

“colour” or “passion”), in the classical music of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, a melodic

framework for improvisation and composition. A raga is based on a scale with a given set of

notes, a typical order in which they appear in melodies, and characteristic musical motifs.

The basic components of a raga can be written down in the form of a scale (in some cases

differing in ascent and descent). By using only these notes, by emphasizing certain degrees

of the scale, and by going from note to note in ways characteristic to the raga, the performer

sets out to create a mood or atmosphere (rasa) that is unique to the raga in question. There

are several hundred ragas in present use, and thousands are possible in theory.

Key People: Tansen Tyagaraja Ali Akbar Khan

Related Topics: musical form improvisation

                                     Origin of Raga...

It is believed that the earliest raga originated from Samaveda. Music was purely chanting of

verses in musical patterns in the late Vedic period. During the ancient times, two musical

genres prevailed : Gandharva and Gana. The Gandharva was the formal composed music

performed during ceremonies.

The roots of Indian classical music can be traced back nearly two thousand years to its

origin in the Vedic hymns of the Hindu temples, the fundamental source of all Indian music.

The very heart of Indian music is the raga - which refers to the melody and tala - which

refers to the rhythm.

History. The mēḷa system of ragas was first propounded by Raamamaatya in his work

Svaramelakalanidhi c. 1550. He is considered the father of mela system of ragas.

Development of Raga.

 In the ancient texts of Hinduism, the term for the technical mode part of rāga was Jati. Later,

Jati evolved to mean quantitative class of scales, while rāga evolved to become a more

sophisticated concept that included the experience of the audience.

Ragas were possibly developed during 8th or 9th century

Development of Raaga in Indian Music has been the outcome of and been influenced by a

number different factors. Raagas comprise one of the purest aspects of music, the

non-referential part which existed even before Bharata wrote his treatise. Raaga should be

examined from the point of conceptual expression of the lived style and philosophy of the

enlightened community which experiences life in consonance with nature, other beings and

other men who find through music their communication in the membership of the larger

society.

Raaga has lived through the Indian view of the cosmos, the Brahman, and has received the

samskara all through and thus achieved the vitality to generate further sarhskaras as well.

Considering the 2000-year old culture of raaga and the tree of raaga in an environment of its

close co-life with other forms of arts, religion and Indian thought, the contour contents of the

raaga as found at this end of the story, the present-day music, show vital signs of the culture

we have lived through and of which we ourselves are the product.

Reference..

https://www.britannica.com/art/raga

https://www.indianetzone.com/47/development_raaga_indian_music.htm

Sakshi Makker

12202022

CA1 PAR106

Batch of 2022