| Hindustani classical music |
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| Thaats |
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Athaat (IAST:thāṭ) is a "parentscale" inNorth Indian orHindustani music. It is the Hindustani equivalent of the termMelakartha raga ofCarnatic music.[1][2] The concept of thethaat is not exactly equivalent to the westernmusical scale because the primary function of athaat is not as a tool for music composition, but rather as a basis for classification ofragas.[2] There is not necessarily strict compliance between a raga and its parentthaat; a raga said to 'belong' to a certainthaat need not allow all the notes of thethaat, and might allow other notes.Thaats are generally accepted to beheptatonic by definition.
The termthaat is also used to refer to the frets of stringed instruments like thesitar and theveena.[3] It is also used to denote the posture adopted by aKathak dancer at the beginning of their performance.[4]
The modernthaat system was created byVishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860–1936), an influential musicologist in the field of classical music in the early decades of the twentieth century.[5][6] Bhatkhande modelled his system after theCarnaticmelakarta classification, devised around 1640 by themusicologistVidwan Venkatamakhin. Bhatkhande visited many of thegharanas (schools) of classical music, conducting a detailed analysis ofragas. His research led him to a system of thirty-two thaats, each named after a prominent raga associated with it. Out of those thirty-two thaats, more than a dozen thaats were popular during his time; however, he chose to highlight only ten such thaats.
According to Bhatkhande, each one of the several traditional ragas is based on, or is a variation of, ten basic thaats, or musical scales or frameworks. The ten thaats are Bilawal, Kalyan, Khamaj, Bhairav, Poorvi, Marwa, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi and Todi; if one were to pick a raga at random, in theory it should be possible to classify it into one of these thaats. For instance, the ragas Shree and Puriya Dhanashree are based on the Poorvi thaats, Malkauns on the Bhairavi thaat, and Darbari Kanada on the Asavari thaat.[7]
In Indian classical music, musical notes are calledswaras. The seven basicswaras of the scale are namedshadja, rishabh, gandhar, madhyam, pancham, dhaivat and nishad, and are abbreviated to Sa, Ri (Carnatic) or Re (Hindustani), Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, and Ni and written S, R, G, M, P, D, N. Collectively these notes are known as thesargam (the word is an acronym of the consonants of the first fourswaras).Sargam is the Indian equivalent tosolfège, a technique for the teaching of sight-singing. The tone Sa is not associated with any particular pitch. As in Western moveable solfège, Sa refers to the tonic of a piece or scale rather than to any particular pitch.
In Bhatkhande's system, the basic mode of reference is that which is equivalent to the Western Ionian mode or major scale (calledBilawal thaat in Hindustani music,Dheerasankarabharanam in Carnatic). The flattening or sharpening of pitches always occurs with reference to the interval pattern in Bilawal thaat. Each thaat contains a different combination of altered (vikrt) and natural (shuddha) notes with respect to the Bilawal thaat. In any seven-tone scale (starting with S), R, G, D, and N can be natural (shuddha, lit. "pure") or flat (komal, lit. "soft") but never sharp, whereas the M can be natural or sharp (tivra, lit. "fast") but never flat, making twelve notes as in the Western chromatic scale. The sharp or flat tones are calledvikrt swara (vikrt, lit. "altered"). Selecting seven tones in ascending order, where S and P are always natural whereas five other tones (R, G, M, D, N) can assume only one of its two possible forms, results in 25 = 32 possible modes which are known asthaats. Out of these thirty-two possibilities, Bhatkhande chose to highlight only ten thaats prominent in his days.
In effect onlyheptatonic scales are calledthaats.[8] Bhatkhande applied the termthaats only to scales that fulfil the following rules:
One can arbitrarily designate any pitch as Sa (thetonic) and build the series from there. While all thaats contain seven notes, many ragas (of theaudav andshadav type) contain fewer than seven and some use more. A raga need not to use every tone in a given thaat; the assignment is made according to whatever notes the raga does contain (but see note 5). The relatively small number of thaats reflects Bhatkhande's compromise between accuracy and efficiency: the degree of fit between a raga and its thaat is balanced with the desire to keep the number of basic thaats small. Ambiguities inevitably arise. For example, Raga Hindol, assigned to Kalyan thaat, uses the notes S G M D N, which are also found in Marwa thaat.Jaijaiwanti contains both shuddha Ni and komal Ni (and sometimes both versions of Ga as well), which by definition corresponds to no thaat. Bhatkande resolved such cases "by an ad hoc consideration, appealing to musical performance practice" (see Ramesh Gangolli's article, cited in note 4 above).[9]
Note that thaats only give a rough structure of the raga and do not give an idea of how the raga should be sung. It is pakad of the raga that gives the chalan or way of singing of the raga.[10]
Bhatkhande named his thaats after the prominent ragas associated with those thaats. Ragas on which the thaats are named are called Janak raga of that thaat.[10] For example, Bilaval Thaat is named after the raga Alhaiya Bilaval. Alhaiya Bilaval raga is therefore Janak raga of Bilaval thaat. Ragas other than the Janak raga of a thaat are called Janya raga.[10]
Many thaats correspond to one or other of the Europeanchurch modes. The thaats are listed here according to their pitches. Lower pitches (komal or flat) are represented with lowercase letters and natural pitches (shuddha or natural) with uppercase letters. A raised pitch (tivra or sharp) is represented by a letter followed by a single quote (i.e. M'). The upper octave is italicized.
| Thaat | Eponymous raga[11] | Notes[11] | Western Notes in C | Western | Carnatic mela[11] | Distinguishing factor[11] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilaval | Bilaval | S R G M P D NS | C D E F G A B C | Ionian | 29th,Sankarabharanam | All Shuddha Svaras |
| Kalyan | Yaman (earlier known as Kalyan) | S R G M' P D NS | C D E F# G A B C | Lydian | 65th, (Mecha)Kalyani | Teevra M |
| Khamaj | Khamaj | S R G M P D nS | C D E F G A Bb C | Mixolydian | 28th,Harikambhoji | Komal n |
| Bhairav | Bhairav | S r G M P d NS | C Db E F G Ab B C | Double Harmonic | 15th,Mayamalavagowla | Komal r, Komal d |
| Kafi | Kafi | S R g M P D nS | C D Eb F G A Bb C | Dorian | 22nd,Kharaharapriya | Komal n, Komal g |
| Asavari | Asavari | S R g M P d nS | C D Eb F G Ab Bb | Aeolian | 20th,Natabhairavi | Komal n, Komal g, Komal d |
| Bhairavi | Bhairavi | S r g M P d nS | C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C | Phrygian | 8th,Hanumatodi | Komal n, Komal g, Komal d, Komal r |
| Poorvi | Poorvi | S r G M' P d NS | C Db E F# G Ab B C | Double Harmonic #4 | 51st,Kamavardhani | Teevra M, Komal r, Komal d |
| Marva | Marva | S r G M' P D NS | C Db E F# G A B C | Lydian b2 | 53rd,Gamanashrama | Teevra M, Komal r |
| Todi | Miyan ki Todi | S r g M' P d NS | C Db Eb F# G Ab B C | Phrygian #4 b6 | 45th,Shubhapantuvarali | Teevra M, Komal r, Komal g, Komal d |
There are many ragas that do not fall in thethaat system. Some ragas have been derived from Carnatic music and hence do not fall in the Hindustani classicalthaat system.Some of them are:
1.Kirvani2.Nat Bhairav3.Charukeshi4.Madhuvanti 5.Ahir Bhairav
Ragas are normally ascribed to certain periods of the day and night (SeeSamayā).Narada'sSangita-Makaranda, written sometime between the 7th and 11th century, gives warnings to musicians against playing ragas at the incorrect time of day. Traditionally, disastrous consequences are to be expected.[12][page needed] Bhatkhande claimed that the correct time to play a raga had a relation to its thaat (and to itsvadi).
However, the author ofNai Vaigyanik Paddhati says that the time of a Raga has no importance, especially during meditation by music or during learning or teaching as practiced by the music scholars. Also, it is clear inBhatkhande Sangeet Shastra at various places that the time do not have any importance while reciting a raga.