Q39

Namaste Guruji. Is it correct that some ragas are to be developed slowly on the basis of important notes while others need to be opened up immediately and developed on the basis of phrases? Is so, can you give some examples please? Also do the ragas of the second category have any specific features by virtue of which they warrant such treatment? Thanks and regards

Suvarna, to repeat your query – is it correct that some ragas are to be developed
slowly on the basis of important notes while others need to be opened up
immediately and developed on the basis of phrases? Is so, can you give some
examples please? Also do the ragas of the second category have any specific
features by virtue of which they warrant such treatment?
Yes, it is true that whilst a substantial number of ragas can be elaborated /
unfolded during alap portion, there are some ragas which require coverage of
several notes to project the raga swarup of the concerned raga. There are
several reasons of this as follows.
1) A majority of ragas reveal their swarup in a few notes and hence a
systematic unfolding of the raga in the alap stage can be undertaken on a step
by step basis (silsila based badhat). In such ragas it would be possible to start
the alap utilizing सा as the base and unfolding the raga swarup through a few
notes including treatment of a couple of notes below सा and a couple of notes
above सा (e.g. raga Puriya, Yaman, Jog etc.)
2) For some ragas like as Jaijaiwanti, Puriya Kalyan, Bihag, Desh, Piloo etc.
they cannot be treated in line with ragas mentioned in para 1. It is not possible
to fully reveal the swarup of the raga and one is likely to misinterpret the
same. For e.g. in Bihag if the melodic movements are नींसा – नींरेसा – प नी – प सा
These phrases could indicate several ragas like Desh, Khamaj, Sarang
etc. Therefore it would be necessary to start with phrases like नींसा followed by
a meed / murki रेग म ग रे. In this manner it would be easy to ascertain that the
raga is Desh. Thus, in such ragas therefore it would be essential more than
one melodic movement to determine the raga.
Conclusion
As would be noted therefore, it is swarup of raga which determines whether one
can develop it on the basis of silsila or expand the melodic area to cover several
phrases.