Art changes with time. Indian music has changed too. No one should expect today’s music to comply with the Vedic rules. However, we must also keep in mind that the change in Indian music was not natural and gradual. We had lost our old ways for a while. Now we have found the old treasures again. We can understand them and learn from them. We don’t have to change our music, but we can definitely benefit from it.

The Vedic music is music of thought and logic. It cannot be learned without knowing the theory of music. In the last few centuries, the Indian music has become a practical art. Many artists who are the torch bearer of Hindustani music have no formal training of music theory. That has limited the scope of our music. Art of music is an aural display of math and physics.

According to Muslim Ustads, one can only be real musician when one has acquired three qualities:

a. Aadat
b. Jigar
c. Hisab

Same things have been said in the scriptures. One without the true knowledge of music, cannot do anything for the advancement of the art. To invent something new, one must know what already has been invented. Thus, although we may not go back to a system with Moorshanas and Grams, but we need to know them to take our current music to the next level.

Vedic music has given us tools and theories about every aspect of music. We have to find ways to see how that can apply to our contemporary styles. It is the most elaborate system of “Svara and Suptak”. We will keep talking about these aspects of music in the future posts. Here I would like to talk a little about Moorshanas and Thaats.

Today, the original Grams have been gone. The Grams are now known as ‘scale tuning’. Their power to change the Raags has been diminished. The introduction of 12 notes has also merged all Moorshanas into one octave. The Thaat theory is the only theory that can properly describe the Indian music today. Although the Moorshana theory is still essential to describe the scales on a flute and it also comes in handy when transposing a Thaat. This theory will live on in the form of Modal music.

The Thaat system is here to stay. But is it working as it is?

The answer is no, the 10 Thaats of Indian music are not enough to describe all the existing Raags. This theory was the brain child of a handful of musicologists of the 20th century. Not everyone in the field has accepted it. Moreover, the ones who have, are struggling with describing the hundreds of Raags in the limited number of parent scales.

The real number of Thaats of Indian music should be 32. The Southern music has 72 Thaats. That theory is not practical for Northern Indian music, where the notes are fixed to only two states, lower and upper (komal and tivar).

Most musicologists today agree that just like the western scale, the 12 notes of Indian music are made of 7 natural and 5 Vikrat or ‘moved’ notes.

Modern Hindustani notes are:

1. Sa
2. Re
3. Ga
4. Ma
5. Pa
6. Dha
7. Ni

And, modern Hindustani scale is:

1. Sa
2. Re Komal
3. Re
4. Ga Komal
5. Ga
6. Ma
7. Ma Tivar
8. Pa
9. Dha Komal
10. Dha
11. Ni Komal and
12. Ni

According to the Thaat theory, a Thaat must have all seven notes. Therefore, there are 32 Thaats in the Hindustani music. Here is an interactive look at these Thaats. Please use the “next” button to see the all 32 scales. The ten popular Thaats have been listed as they appear:
[iframe width=”100%” height=”300″ src=”https://www.sangtar.com/canvas/170204-32-thaats.html”]
The interactive animation above lists the Thaats in the following order:

1. Thaats with only one Vikrat note
2. Thaats with two Vikrat notes
3. Thaats with three Vikrat notes
4. Thaats with four Vikrat notes and
5. Thaat with all five Vikrat notes

And the count starts from the top and goes downwards.
Among many popular theories to categorize the 32 Thaats, one is known as ‘Thaat Flipping’. We will talk about that theory next.

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Today, there are 10 Thaats in Hindustani music.
The questions often asked by the students of Hindustani music discussed in our lat post are:

1. Can one categorize 56 Moorshanas into 10 parent scales (Thaats).
2. Are there any equivalent Moorshanas for Bhairav, Poorvi, Todi and Marva thaat?
3. Can one define 12 notes of an octave through the Sharuti system to establish all the Thaats?

Answer to all the above is simple; no.

If no, then what happened?
How did we go from one system to the other, which are not compatible with each other?

Answer to that question is not so simple. The first and foremost factor is history of India. Second is the influence of charismatic musicologist, who more than once changed the path of Hindustani music with there personal views.

When India became a Muslim empire, the foreign emperors (and their administrators) brought their own entertainers with them. Thousands of musicians from Persia and Middle East arrived in India. Their music was based on 12-note octave and they used ‘Mukam System’ to categorize the scales. For the longest time there was no integration between two types of music. When the time arrived, original Indian music had two set backs.

1. It did not have royal sponsorship.
2. Newcomers were not ready to grant higher or equal status to the arts of a defeated nation. This notion did not just affect the music. It reflected in all types of arts (builidings, paintings etc.)

The tide slightly changed when a new generation of Persian musicians was born in India. Regardless of their religious beliefs or political loyalties, they were Indians. It was their motherland. Many of them were not comfortable with the notion that they should play a foreign style of music. Hazarat Amir Khusro is the most influential musicologist of this era. He took the task of making the popular music ‘all Indian’ on him. Amir Khusro was a brilliant musician and enjoyed support of five different emperors. Although it was believed that he was fully versed in both types of music, but now musicologists and historians agree that his knowledge of Indian music was limited. Rather than spending a lifetime to understand the secrets of Moorshana and grams, he classified the known Rāgas in Mukam system. This turned a page in the history of Indian music. Seeds of Mail System or Thaat system were sown.

For four hundred years, music historians and musicologist have spent their lives justifying that both systems were essentially the same. The modern names of Southern Indian notes are the prime example of far reaching effects of this misunderstanding. Modern thinkers know that regardless of Ramatyas justifications, these names are not compatible with the Gram system. The Carnatic music is not in the scope of this blog so I will not go into details on this subject. However consequences of these actions were severe, before that time India never had two music systems. There was only one Indian music. In essence they still are the same. But in this era of redefining everything, Northern music faired a little better. It came out richer and better than ever before.

The second influential person in the modern history of Indian music was Pundit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande. Rather than taking a scientific approach to Thaat creation, he divided the popular Raags into 10 Thaats. Here again historian disagree. Some think that all his invetions were actually not his but result of his Guru’s lifetime research. Which even Pundit V N B himself admits. Regardless of the origin of his doctrins, he is the face of modern Hindustani Music theory and his contributions and their effect on the Hindustani music is undeniable.

The prime motive to choose only ten Thaats was to keep the system simple. In his opinion the ten Thaats were sufficient to cover all three types of Raag-scales. You have seen these three categories in the Time Theory post.

1. Raags With Komal Re and Dha
2. Raags with Shudh Re and Dha
3. Raags with Komal Ga and Ni

Read more about this theory here.

After the Independence (August 15,1947), Hindustani musicians and musicologists enjoyed a much more open and welcoming environment. New projects of translating the ancient scriptures began. An open dialogue between the new and the old started. For the first time in the history of our music, researchers could share their ideas globally with all Hindustani musicians. They could speak their mind without worrying about any royal reprecussions. The walls started to come down. The knowledge hidden in the corners of remote temples, houses, asharams, libraries, digs and hearts started to merge. There are so many great people on both sides of the border (India and Pakistan) who have done a great deal of service to Hindustani music in the last 60 years.

Achayria Brihaspati is definitely the torch bearer of this new era. He demonstrated the old and new and helped the new generation of musicians to understand the essence of Indian music.

Although all ancient styles of singing and performing are lost, the practice of performing Indian music never really changed. All current musical styles have their roots in the ancient styles. The progression of change is natural.

The Mughal era proved to be the most effective era in the history of Hindustani Music. This was a time of peace and prosperity in the middle India. Art flourishes in such periods. This was the time when Sanskrit reciting Brahmans could sit and share ideas with their Muslim Gurus and Students. Mian Tansen is the most famous vocalist of this time. From his drupads, it is obvious that he was well versed in the old Moorshana System and the new Mukam system.

Acharya Brihaspati considers today’s Ghazal Performers the same as the Gadharavas of the ancient India. In Ghazals, the words and notes are both equal. A ghazal writer is as important as the musician who composes it. In ancient India these two aspects of musical performance were known as Dhatu and Matu.

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Today’s Indian music is based on the Thaat system, which is a derivative of Mukam System (Persian). Today’s natural scale is not the same as the original ancient natural scale.
The ten Thaats of modern Northern music are not able to cover 56 Moorshanas of Vedic music. And, there are scales (Thaats or Mails) and Raags in Indian music today that do not follow Bharat’s doctrine.

The questions often asked by the students of Hindustani music are:

1. Can one categorize 56 Moorshanas into 10 parent scales (Thaats)?
2. Are there any equivalent Moorshanas for Bhairav, Poorvi, Todi and Marva thaat?
3. Can one define 12 notes of an octave through the Sharuti system to establish all the Thaats?
4. is there any provision in Gram and Moorshana system to have an interval bigger than 4 Sharuties (such as Re komal to Ga Shudh in Bhairav or an interval of 3 semitones)?

Answers to all the above questions are; no, no, no and no.

Then what happened?
How did we go from one system to the other, which are not compatible with each other?

There is no simple answer. In essence, the practice of music did not change as much as its interpretation has. We need to understand both the old and new and then build a bridge to use the best of both worlds.

Next few posts will address this very issue.

If you have been following this blog, I hope it has widened your horizons. This blog is not about today’s headlines. It is about the ancient art of music. The very first article still stays equally relevant as the very last one. Do not forget to revise the old articles to keep the information fresh. Only revisions can turn a piece of information into knowledge, and without knowledge, there is no wisdom!

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