Page:The Music of India.djvu/55

 CHAPTER IV RĀGA—THE BASIS OF MELODY

Rāga is the basis of melody in Indian music and a substitute for the western scale. 'It is the attempt of an artistic nation to reduce to law and order the melodies that come and go on the lips of the people.' In Rāga Vibodha, it is defined as 'an arrangement of sounds, which possesses varṇa, furnishes gratification to the senses and is constituted by musical notes.' The term varṇa refers to the act of singing, and is of four kinds, viz.: Sthāyī-repetition of the same sound, Ārohī-ascent, Avarohī-descent, Sañchārī-ascent and descent mixed. Mr. Strangways defines rāga as 'an arbitrary series of notes characterized, as far as possible as individuals, by proximity to or remoteness from the note which marks the tessitura (general level of the melody), by a special order in which they are usually taken, by the frequency or the reverse with which they occur, by grace or the absence of it, and by relation to a tonic usually reinforced by a drone.' A simplified form of this might run; 'Rāgas are different series of notes within the octave, which form the basis of all Indian melodies, and are differentiated from each other by the prominence of certain fixed notes and by the sequence of particular notes.' We may perhaps find in the term 'melody-type' the best way to transcribe rāga in English.

According to ancient musical theory, there are three important notes in the rāga. These are the Graha, the Aṃśa, and the Nyāsa. The Graha is the starting note, the Aṃśa the predominant, and the Nyāsa the ending note. The aṃśa is also called the vādī. Very little importance is attached to the graha and the nyāsa to-day,