Re: Yaman & Bihag shruti comparison - Demo on Sarod

Another question to Dr. Kelkar. Have you studied any other of the
Bilawal Mel Ragas? The source of this question being, there is an age-
old confusion about Bihag's thAt, some say it's Kalyan, some say it's
Bilawal. The way I have learnt, and then whatever little I observed, I
find nothing Kalyan in Bihag. Based on your observations, can one
conclude that Bihag can't be a Kalyan? Secondly, if Shuddha Nishad is
consuming two Shrutis, what remains there for Komal Nishad according
to the "Chatuschatushchatshchaiba ... etc."?

Partha

Thank you for the appeciative comment.

1. Thaat system has many problems with it. While Bhatkhandeji's
genius is obvious in many things he has done, the classification
system of "thaat" is very restrictive and in a way misleading.
Perhaps it is useful to classify the raags one way or another, and
that thaat system can be helpful. But some argue that there is
really no need to classify raags in a particular way. The fact that
many raags are lumped together kills the individual spirit of the
raag.

For example, I find no utility in putting todi and multani in the same
group. Yes, very grossly speaking, in the way we label swar, todi
and multani use the "same named notes" ... but as we have seen
previously the swar-sthaan is very very different. Then what use is
there in putting todi and multani under same 'thaat'? They also
differ in chalan etc etc. I find no usefulness in understanding the
nature of multani by having it linked with todi in any way.

There are many examples like that. So I don't think we should get to
attached to the thaat system. Being it as it may, I agree with you,
and personally find to no kalyan in bihag and vise versa. It
probably relates better to Bilawal. Another example would be
bilaskhaan todi which is classified under bhairavi thaat, due to
"same" named notes, but as a raganga it clearly derives its soul from
todi (hence the name, obviously)

Another way to "classify" raags is think of raaganga. So some would
descrine bihag raganga. We should remember that the classification of
thaat has come later, in 20th century, in order to classify. May be
helps to somehow classify the vast number of raags. But in doing so
many oddities can be seen.

2. Shuddha Nishad is a very important swar to understand in terms of
shruti and swar sthaan. In fact the more I study and think. I feel
that understanding shuddha Nishad is fundamental to understanding
shruti. May be I will discuss this in the next demo, there are more
than 2 shrutis of shuddha nishad and they have nothing to do with
komal nishad, which is quite a bit distance away (as you can see
clearly on Sarod).

How many shrutis should exist is a difficult subject to summarize.
Some would argue 22, 32, > 40 etc. I don't think there is a need to
put a number on on this at all. Of couse you will see one or many
arguments supporting each of the claims, some will take mathematical
modelling to come to the magin number of 22 etc. But I don't think we
should think of shrutis this way.

- PK
.