Raga Families (raagang) & Compound Ragas (jod raag)

~Introducing serious ragas~

This page explores the concept of raga families through some of the weightier ragas in Indian classical music – Malkauns, Darbari Kanada, Miya Malhar, and their offshoots – Chandrakauns, Sampoorna Malkauns, Kaunsi Kanada, and Megh.

Raga families (raagang) are created when new ragas are derived from existing ragas. Take an existing raga and leave out one note from its scale, and you have a new raga. Add a new note, and you have a different raga. You can also leave out or add notes selectively, say just in the ascending scale of the raga or only in specific note patterns. The melody profiles or chalan (video: "what is chalan?") of ragas in the same family are often similar.

Take Raag Malkauns, for instance. It uses the notes Sa ga ma dha ni (1, ♭3, 4, ♭6, ♭7). If you substitute Ni for ni, you get Raag Chandrakauns (Sa ga ma dha Ni; 1, ♭3, 4, ♭6, 7). If you take Malkauns and add two notes to it, Re and Pa, you get Raag Sampoorna Malkauns (Sa Re ga ma Pa dha ni; 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, ♭6, ♭7). All three ragas belong to the Kauns family and use similar patterning of notes. Meanwhile, Raag Darbari Kanada uses the same set of notes as Sampoorna Malkauns (Sa Re ga ma Pa dha ni; 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, ♭6, ♭7), but its melody profile is different because it has a different origin. It belongs to the Kanada family. Let's take a look at the progression from one raga to another to see how this works in practice.

Raag Malkauns (Kauns ang)

Malkauns is an ancient raga and a very important one in both Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) classical music. It is vast and profound, best performed in the lower pitch ranges at an extremely contemplative pace in the small hours of the morning, just after midnight.

Raag Chandrakauns (Kauns ang)

Despite using so many flat notes, there is no darkness in Malkauns because of the even spacing of its notes. But replace the flat ni (♭7) with Ni (7), and you immediately add an element of tension and darkness to the scale. Chandrakauns is a new raga, created from Malkauns. Similar to Malkauns, it is performed after midnight.

Raag Sampoorna Malkauns (Kauns ang)

Sampoorna Malkauns, to me, is a more feminine version of Malkauns. This is also a relatively new raga, and a rare one as well. It is mostly performed by artists of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana (school). Once again, the time prescribed for this raga is after midnight.

Raag Darbari Kanada (Kanada ang)

Darbari Kanada uses all the same notes as Sampoorna Malkauns but sounds very different. Darbari is considered among the most difficult ragas in Hindustani music because of its use of difficult microtones and heavy ornamentation. If Malkauns is profound, Darbari Kanada is stately. The first part of its name comes from the word darbar (the king's court), and the second part, Kanada, indicates that it belongs to the Kanada family. Grand and majestic, this raga is best sung in a heavy bass voice during the late evening hours, and sometimes deep into the night.

Compound Ragas

What if we were to interweave the melodies of the Kauns and Kanada families above? We would get a compound raga. Compound ragas are a fascinating group of ragas created by combining two existing ragas. The challenge here is to make sure that the final product is pleasing rather than disconcerting. There are two ways in which ragas can be combined. One way involves simply interweaving the melodies of two ragas so that each raga retains its identity.

Raag Kaunsi Kanada (Kauns + Kanada ang)

This late-night raga is a delightful combination of ragas Sampoorna Malkauns and Darbari Kanada. It gives you glimpses now of the Kauns family, now of the Kanada family, keeping you constantly surprised.

Another way of creating a compound raga is by using the notes of one raga and the melody profile of a different raga family, as in the case of Megh, which uses the notes of Madmaad Sarang but the note patterning and ornamentation of the Malhar group of rain ragas as demonstrated below by Sawani Shende.

"Malhar" means "cleanser of impurities" (indicating the rains) and all ragas that contain the word Malhar in their names are rain ragas. Imagine four months of relentlessly rising mercury, searing heat, dry dust storms during the day and suffocating airless nights. And then suddenly one day, black clouds gather in the horizon, the thunder rumbles and temperatures drop like lead as a cool wind swirls in dried leaves and twigs ahead of the first monsoon storm. The fragrance that rises as the first raindrops touch the scorched earth is indescribable, peacocks start to dance. That is when the Malhar ragas are sung.

The Malhar ragas can depict the joy and relief of the first rains, but on a dramatically contrasting note, they can also depict restless longing in separation and unnamed fears. Ornamentation is used to great effect in these ragas to suggest clouds gathering, the wind blowing, thunder rumbling, and lightning cracking.

Raag Megh (Malhar ang)

Let's first listen to the gorgeous Raag Megh (meaning "clouds"), less popular than its cousin Miya Malhar, perhaps, but gentler and more easily melodious.

Raag Miya Malhar (Malhar ang)

And now for a glimpse into Miya Malhar, the most famous of the Malhar ragas. The popularity of Miya Malhar (also called Miya ki Malhar) is due to its prolific use in lighter genres including movie songs, where it is accordingly treated more lightly. In mainstream classical music, however, it is considered an extremely difficult raga to master because of the use of difficult microtones and heavy oscillations. The circuitous (vakra) nature of its phrasing also makes it quite a challenge to improvise extensively in this raga, though obvously not for the inimitable Bhimsen Joshi.

N M Khare, a desciple of Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872-1931), identified a total of 30 raagangs under which to classify most ragas.

To explore other important ragas in Hindustani classical music, check out raga classification by scale (thaat) and structure (jati), and a few more difficult ragas.