Modes and Scales in Indian Music

8/8/2019 Modes and Scales in Indian Music

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MODES AND SCALES IN INDIAN

MUSIC

The scale forms the basis of all music. This article will look at thediffering concepts of scale in both theNorth and South Indiansystems of music.

It is well known that Indian music is based upon the conceptof seven notes (sapta swar). Theses notes are: Shadj, Rishabh,Gandhar, Madhyam, Dhaivat, and Nishad; yet they are commonlyabbreviated to Sa, Re (Ri), Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, and Ni. The positions ofthese notes may vary considerably, therefore there should be a way

to describe these scales. This is called "mode" in English, "that" inHindi and "mela" in the south Indian languages.

The concept of that or mela extends back to Bharat's time, whereit was referred to as "jati". There were 18 jatis, 11 of which were saidto be mixed, while seven were called "shuddha". The term Shuddhain Sanskrit means "pure". The term shuddha was applied becausethey were all related by a simple process of modulation known as"murchana".

Murchana is easily understood by the following illustration. Wesee that if we start with a scale, in this case Bilawal-Dhirashankarabaranam (natural scale), we may produce a number ofother scales by simply shifting the tonic. This fundamentalrelationship is why the ancients called them "Shuddha".

THE PROCESS OF MURCHANA (Modulation)

Bilawal-Dhirashankarabaranam

Sa

Re

Ga

Ma

Pa

Dha

Ni Sa * * * * * *

Kafi-Kharaharapriya

*Sa

Re

Ga

Ma

PaDha

Ni Sa * * * * *

Bhairavi-Hanumantodi

* *Sa

Re

Ga

Ma PaDha

Ni Sa * * * *

Kalyan-Mechakalyani

* * *Sa

Re

GaMa

'Pa

Dha

Ni Sa * * *

Khammaj- * * * * S Re Ga Ma Pa Dh Ni Sa * *


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Harikamboji a a

Asavari-Natabhairavi

* * * * * Sa Re Ga Ma PaDha

NiSa

*

(nonexistent) * * * * * * Sa Re Ga Ma PaDha

NiSa

An important conceptual shift occurred somewhere between1000ad and 1500ad. The process of relating scales by murchana(e.g., shuddha jati) was downgraded and the process of relatingscales by an alteration of the internal intervals (e.g., mixed jatis) wasadopted. This shift was probably precipitated by two events. Firstwas the fixing of the interval for the 5th. We see from the previousillustration that it was possible to have a "Komal Pa" (i.e., diminished5th). When it was no longer acceptable to have this komal pancham,the system was forced to change. Another disadvantage of thissystem was that after modulation, the scale would have to be slightlyretuned because the intervals on each position were not exactly thesame. For whatever reasons, the process of looking at scales as afunction of internal intervals became the new paradigm for Indianmusicologists.

The master of this new paradigm was Venkatmukhi Swami who isvery important to the South Indian musicians. In 1660 he publishedhis Chaturdandiprakashika in which he outlined his system of 72mela. This process is demonstrated quite simply in the followingillustration. We see in the chart that there are 6 permutations of boththe lower and upper tetrachords. When we multiply them together weget 36 different combinations. These 36 are then doubled by the useof tivra ma (augmented 4th) to yield 72 different combinations. This isthe origin of the 72 mela.

VENKATAMUKHI SWAMI'S APPROACH TO SCALES

Lower Tetrachord Upper Tetrachord

Sa Re - - Ga Ma Pa Dha - - Ni Sa

Sa - Re - Ga Ma Pa - Dha - Ni Sa

Sa - Re Ga - Ma Pa - Dha Ni - Sa

Sa Re - Ga - Ma Pa Dha - Ni - Sa

Sa Re Ga - - Ma Pa Dha Ni - - Sa

Sa - - Re Ga Ma Pa - - Dha Ni Sa


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This process is very effective in providing a theoretical base forsouth Indian music. It is clear, scientific and unambiguous. Howeverthe situation is a bit different in the North.

Hindustani sangeet has been slow to develop a scientific

approach to scales. It would seem easy to simply adopt the 72melkarta system; unfortunately this is not so easy. We see in theprevious illustration that the last two permutations of each group oftetrachords contain chromaticisms which are not possible in theNorthern system. Therefore, when the disallowed permutations areremoved, we get 32 possible scales instead of 72. This 32 thatsystem seems to be the clearest approach to north Indian scales.Unfortunately it is seldom used.

Most musicians follow the system laid down by V.N. Bhatkhande.

To his credit we must say that prior to his work, the theoretical systemwas even worse. It was dominated by archaic concepts of rag, ragini,putra rags etc. This may have been quaint and colourful, but it wasworthless as a scientific system. Bhatkhande was brave enough toabandon the raga-ragini approach and introduce a scientific systemof that (i.e., mela). Unfortunately his numbers were off. He seems tohave been well aware of the 32 possible modes produced by theprevious process, however, he took an unfortunate decision in histreatment of unutilized thats. Whereas Venkatmukhi Swami took theposition that he had "discovered" new melas, Bhatkhande took theview that these thats were irrelevant and cast them out. This wouldhave been excusable if he had stopped there, but unfortunately hecontinued to cast out thats, even some in common usage. Of morethan a dozen modes in use during his time, Bhatkhande arbitrarilydecided that he would use only ten.

The consequence of this arbitrary decision was unfortunate.Today about 20 modes are in common use, but music teachers gothrough the futile attempt to cast the rags into 10 scales. Suchattempts are arbitrary, unscientific and weaken the theoreticalbackground of the average music student. There is a movement inmany places to rectify the situation. It does no great violation to thesystem to increase the number of thats, and this is exactly what manymusicologists are doing. But it may be a long time before this is thenorm.


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This article has shown how important scales are in Indian music.They may be called scale, that, or mela but conceptually they are allthe same. They describe the character of the seven notes. Over thelast few millenniua, India has seen numerous approaches to scales,but today India has two. There is the north Indian system based upon

10 thats and the South Indian system based upon 72 melas.

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Modes and Scales in Indian Music