From: Krishna Kunchithapadam (krisna@cs.wisc.edu)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
Subject: Re: Begada and its parent
Date: 25 Jul 92 16:12:28 GMT
Followup-To: rec.music.indian.classical
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept

chander@leland.Stanford.EDU (Chandar Venkataraman) writes:

>> This is probably on the lines of a question asked a couple of days ago
>> regarding janya ragas and their parents. Why is begada considered a
>> janya of shankarabaranam and not of Harikamboji, which has the "ni" of
>> begada.
>>
>> Similarly, why is mohanam considered a janya of harikomboji? Why not
>> a janya of shankarabaranam or kalyani?
>>
>> Are there any subtle rules that define this parent-janya relationship
>> or is this all just academic?
>>


The eternal question !!! One of  the  greatest  achievements  and
biggest  source of confusion and controversy in Carnatic music is
the janaka-janya system of raga classification.

For modern ragas that were created after the advent  of  the  72-
melakarta  scheme,  there  is  a usually a clear consensus on the
parent raga. However, many ancient ragas had to be  coerced  into
this scheme and the results are not always clean.



Firstly, it is incorrect to say that the Nishada of Begada is the
same  as that of Hari Kambhoji. Begada is an Upanga that uses the
Kakali Nishada note. Its peculiarity is  that  there  occur  many
ranjaka  prayogas  where  the  Nishada is sung slightly flattened
(but nowhere  near  the  Kaisiki  swara  sthana)  and  the  Sudha
Madhyama  is  sung slightly sharpened (but nowhere near the Prati
Madhyama swara sthana).

Many anti-reductionists would vehemently claim  that  ragas  like
Begada,  Bilahari,  Bhairavi, Saurashtram should not be placed in
the janaka-janya scheme at all. However,  if  Begada  had  to  be
fitted  into  this  scheme, Dheera Sankarabharanam is the correct
mela which will serve as the janaka raga.



I had posted an article to this group some time  back  discussing
alternate  ways  of thinking about the janaka-janya relationships
between ragas. I won't repeat everything I said save mention some
of   the  methods/rules  that  can  be  used  to  determine  this
relationship.

Let us first consider Upanga ragas.

(1) For ragas that are Panchama varja (i.e. make use of  all  the
    other notes either in the Arohana or Avarohana), or are vakra
    arohana/avrohana variants of a  sampurna  scale,  the  janaka
    mela  is  uniquely  determined.  More  importantly,  this  is
    irrespective of any subtle sruthis or prayogas that the janya
    raga employ (see next few points for why).

    Eg. Saveri (the modern version with a sampurna avarohana)  is
    a janya of Mayamalavagaula.  Hamsa vinodini is Panchama varja
    Sankarabharanam, Gurupriya is Panchama varja Vachaspathi.



When the Upanga  raga  is  varja  in  enough  notes  to  make  it
derivable  from  more than one melakarta, the following rules may
be used.



(2) Earliest mela in the Katapayadi sankhya: This method has been
    called  into  play for almost all new ragas and many old ones
    too. The advantage of this scheme is that  it  is  absolutely
    unambiguous - there can be no two opinions about which of two
    different numbers is smaller.

    Eg. Revathi is considered a janya of Rathnangi,  even  though
    there  are  better  justifications  for its janaka raga to be
    Chakravaham.  Lathaanthapriya  is  considered  a   janya   of
    Kanakangi  even  though  its  similarity  to  Mayamalavagaula
    derivates like Gaula and Paadi is unmistakable.



(3) The mela with sruthis closest  to  the  janya  raga:  From  a
    musical/musicological  point  of view, this method seems more
    satisfying. To a listener, this is what makes  a  raga  sound
    most  like a janaka raga. However, the flip side is that this
    method is *subjective*. Inspite of belief  to  the  contrary,
    the matter of determining the exact sruthis used in a raga is
    largely an amalgamation of tradition and current practice. As
    a  raga  evolves,  it may have diverged sufficiently from its
    original form to be placed under  a  new  janaka  raga.  This
    uncertainty  about how a raga should be sung and what sruthis
    it uses has led to many controversies.

    Eg. Hindolam is a janya of Hanuma Todi, Sunada vinodini is  a
    janya of Gamanasrama for just these reasons.



(4) The evolution of the  raga:  This  is  another  aesthetically
    pleasing method that traces the evolution of a raga along the
    course of its history and determines its parent raga based on
    the  parent  ragas  of  the pro-genitors of the current raga.
    This method is also less ambiguous than the  use  of  sruthis
    since  raga  evolution  is  better  documented  than  musical
    practice.

    Eg. Hari Kambhoji -> Nartaki -> Valaji -> Mahati  is  a  very
    remarkable line of descent that illustrates this process. The
    similarities of prayogas between adjacent ragas in this chain
    are very great.



(5) Lastly, a method which I proposed is the  use  of  Grahabedha
    arguments to determine the janaka raga of a derived raga. The
    method works roughly as follows.  A  group  of  upanga  janya
    ragas  which  form a Grahabedha clique amongst themselves can
    be derived from a set  of  mela  ragas  which  will  form  an
    equivalent  Grahabedha clique of their own. One can construct
    a table of permutations of these  associations  to  determine
    which  of  the  mela  ragas  is most "suited" to serve as the
    janaka raga for a given janya raga.

    By this method, Mohanam is a janya  of  Kalyani  rather  than
    Sankarabharanam  or  Hari  Kambhoji. I'll be happy to discuss
    this in greater detail if necessary.

    The advantage of  this  scheme  is  that  it  is  once  again
    unambiguous, since Grahabedha manipulations are mathematical.
    However, there can still exist some unresolved  relationships
    with this scheme that will have to be decided some other way.



Bhashanga ragas pose a much more difficult problem.  In  addition
to  the  methods  suggested above, there is a judgment call to be
made as to the prathama and anya swara in the raga.  Once  again,
the  sruthi  similarity is invoked to decide the janaka raga when
it is not clear which note of the Bhashanga pair is primary.



While I have listed a few methods that could conceivably be  used
to  tackle  the  problem,  I  do  not  make  any claims about the
validity or appropriateness of  any  of  these  methods.   In  my
opinion,  the  creator  of a new raga has the complete freedom to
propose the janaka raga (based  on  whatever  method  he  or  she
thinks fit), unless this choice in plain wrong.


-- Krishna

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|    Krishna Kunchithapadam             krisna@cham.cs.wisc.edu |
|    Computer Sciences Department                               |
|    University of Wisconsin, Madison                           |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+