What is a Raga (2)-Ascending and Descending Note Sequences

We’ve said that Ragas have notes and these notes can be ornamented, or stressed in different ways. That means the same note can be approached quite differently in different ragas.

Ragas are not tunes. Tunes have to follow a fixed sequence of notes. When singing a Raga one does not sing the notes in the same pattern all the time.

There is a strong improvisational aspect to performing a Raga, as long as some rules about the melodic content/conceptual framework of the Raga are followed. This framework is known as the Raga’s lakshana .

The lakshana of a Raga includes what notes are to be ornamented and how, which notes are to be stressed, which ones are to be just touched upon and which ones are to be avoided.

Another factor that can influence the lakshana of a Raga are ascending and descending note sequences.

The aaroh or aarohana is the ascending note sequence in a Raga and the avroh or the avrohana is the descending sequence.

For example, the arohana for the Ragam Mohanam (Raag Bhoopali in the Hindustani system) is as follows:
S R G P D S
and the avarohana is
S D P G R S.

(Note: when the notes are written in all capitals as above that means it is the “higher/sharper” form of each note. Remember, there is more than one form of the notes R, G, M, D, N. If I write notes in lower case, that means they take on the lower “flatter” form. Sa and Pa are fixed).

Below is a clip of the Aarohana and Avarohana of Mohanam courtesy the excellent site ragasurabhi

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Another example:

The Raga Saveri’s Aarohana (ascending pattern) is
S r m P d S
and its Avarohana (descending pattern) is
S N d P m G r S

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Thus, if one is performing the Raga Saveri and touching upon the notes in an ascending sequence (aarohi prayoga), one may not sing Ni though the note is present in the Raga. However, one may sing Ni if it is approached in a descending sequence (avrohi prayoga). This applies whether one is actually singing out the names of the notes, singing a text free phrase (eg by just singing the vowel aaaaaaaa), or a composition with text.

More on note patterns, aarohana and avarohana in the next post.