Modes and Scales

In Indian Music

by David Courtney

The scale forms the basis of all music.  This arti­cle will look at the differing con­cepts of scale in both the North and South In­dian sys­tems of music.

It is well known that Indian music is based upon the con­cept of seven notes (sapta swar).  Theses notes are: Shadj, Rishabh, Gandhar, Madhyam, Dhaivat, and Nishad; yet they are com­monly abbreviated to Sa, Re (Ri), Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, and Ni.  The posi­tions of these notes may vary con­si­der­ably, therefore there should be a way to des­cribe these scales.  This is called “mode” in Eng­lish, “that“ in Hindi and “mela” in the south In­dian lan­gua­ges.

The con­cept of that or mela extends back to Bharat’s time, where it was re­fer­red to as “jati“.  There were 18 jatis, 11 of which were said to be mixed, while seven were called “shuddha“.  The term Shuddha in Sanskrit means “pure”.  The term shuddha was applied be­cause they were all related by a simple pro­cess of modulation known as “murchana“.

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Murchana

Murchana is easily under­stood by the following illustration.  We see that if we start with a scale, in this case Bilawal-Dhirashankarabaranam (natural scale), we may produce a num­ber of other scales by sim­ply shifting the tonic.  This fun­da­men­tal re­la­tionship 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

*

Pa

*

Dha

Ni

*

Sa°

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Bhairavi-Hanumantodi

*

*

*

*

Sa

Re

*

Ga

*

Ma

*

Pa

Dha

*

Ni

*

Sa°

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Kalyan-Mechakalyani

*

*

*

*

*

Sa

*

Re

*

Ga

*

Ma’

Pa

*

Dha

*

Ni

*

Sa°

*

*

*

*

*

*

Khammaj-Harikamboji

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Sa

*

Re

*

Ga

Ma

*

Pa

*

Dha

*

Ni

*

Sa°

*

*

*

*

Asavari-Natabhairavi

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Sa

*

Re

Ga

*

Ma

*

Pa

*

Dha

*

Ni

*

Sa°

*

*

(nonexistent)

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Sa

Re

*

Ga

*

Ma

*

Pa

*

Dha

*

Ni

*

Sa°

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A Paradigm Shift

An impor­tant con­ceptual shift oc­cur­red somewhere bet­ween 1000CE and 1500CE.  The pro­cess of relating scales by murchana (e.g., shuddha jati) was downgraded and the pro­cess of relating scales by an alteration of the internal intervals (e.g., mixed jatis) was adopted. This shift was prob­ably precipitated by two ev­ents.  First was the fixing of the interval for the 5th.  We see from the previous illustration that it was pos­sible to have a “Komal Pa” (i.e., diminished 5th).  When it was no longer accept­able to have this komal pancham, the sys­tem was forced to change.  Another disadvantage of this sys­tem was that after modulation, the scale would have to be slightly retuned be­cause the intervals on each posi­tion were not exactly the same.  For what­ever rea­sons, the pro­cess of look­ing at scales as a func­tion of internal intervals be­came the new paradigm for In­dian musicologists.

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Venkatmukhi Swami’s System

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

VENKATAMUKHI SWAMI’S APPROACH TO SCALES

Lower Tetrachord (Purvang)

Upper Tetrachord (Uttarang)

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

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

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The North Indian Approach

Hindustani sangeet has been slow to develop a scien­ti­fic ap­proach to scales.  It would seem easy to sim­ply adopt the 72 melkarta sys­tem; unfortunately this is not so easy.  We see in the previous illustration that the last two permutations of each group of tetrachords contain chromaticisms which are not pos­sible in the Nort­hern sys­tem.  There­fore, when the disallowed permutations are removed, we get 32 pos­sible scales instead of 72.  This 32 that sys­tem 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 sys­tem was even worse.  It was dominated by archaic con­cepts of rag, ragini, putra rags etc.  This may have been quaint and colourful, but it was worthless as a scien­ti­fic sys­tem.  Bhatkhande was brave enough to abandon the raga-ragini ap­proach and introduce a scien­ti­fic sys­tem of that (i.e., mela).  Unfor­tunately his num­bers were off.  He seems to have been well aware of the 32 pos­sible modes pro­du­ced by the previous pro­cess, how­ever, he took an unfortunate de­ci­sion in his treat­ment of unutilised thats.  Whereas Venkatmukhi Swami took the posi­tion that he had “discovered” new melas, Bhatkhande took the view that these thats were irrelevant and cast them out.  This would have been excusable if he had stopped there, but unfortunately he con­tin­ued to cast out thats, even some in com­mon usage.  Of more than a dozen modes in use du­ring his time, Bhatkhande arbitrarily de­cided 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 go through the futile attempt to cast the rags into 10 scales.  Such attempts are arbitrary, unscientific and weaken the theoretical back­ground of the average music student.  There is a move­ment in many places to rectify the si­tua­tion.  It does no great violation to the sys­tem to increase the num­ber of thats, and this is exactly what many musicologists are doing.  But it may be a long time before this is the norm.

This arti­cle has shown how impor­tant scales are in Indian music.  They may be called scale, that, or mela but con­ceptually they are all the same.  They des­cribe the cha­rac­ter of the seven notes.  Over the last few millennia, 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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