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14. Jati classification

  Ragas of Hindustani music are classified in following three Jatis (types) depending on the number of notes used. Quite rarely Chatusvari Jati, four notes scale, is added to these three.
Audav Jati(five notes scale = pentatonic scale)
Shadav Jati(six notes scale = hexatonic)
Sampurna Jati(seven notes scale = heptatonic scale)

 Typical examples of ragas belonging to the three Jatis are as follows:
Audav Jati raga
 Raga Bhupali
 Ascending/Sa(C) Ri(D) Ga(E) Pa(G) Dha(A) Sa'(C')
 Descending/Sa'(C') Dha(A) Pa(G)  Ga(E) Ri(D) Sa(C)
Shadav Jati raga
 Raga Shubh Kalyan
 Ascending/Sa(C) Ri(D) Ga(E) Pa(G), Dha(A) ni(B♭) Sa'(C')
 Descending/Sa'(C') ni(B♭) Dha(A) Pa(G) Ga(E) Ri(D) Sa(C)
Sampurna Jati raga
 Raga Bilaval
 Ascending/Sa(C) Ri(D) Ga(E) Ma(F) Pa(G) Dha(A) Ni(B) Sa'(C')
 Descending/Sa'(C') Ni(B) Dha(A) Pa(G) Ma(F) Ga(E) Ri(D) Sa(C)
 Aside from the above there are ragas mixed with different Jatis as follows.
Raga Bhimpalasi
Ascending/Sa(C) ga(E♭) Ma(F) Pa(G) ni(B♭) Sa'(C')
Descending/Sa'(C') Ni(B) Dha(A) Pa(G) Ma(F) Ga(E) Ri(D) Sa(C)
 This raga has five notes on ascending (Aroha) and seven on descending(Avaroha). So it is Audav-Sampurna raga. There are many ragas taking different number of notes on ascending and descending like raga Bhimpalasi. In this way the raga has a character whose musical scale cannot be simply defined as "notes arranged in order of steps of height" as in Western music.
 Table-34 shows the distribution of the raga classified on Jati. The names of ragas are shown in Table-35.

Table-34

 If raga is counted only according to the number of notes, number of ragas having four notes is 1, five notes is 102, six notes is 130 and seven notes is 320. The distribution shows that the ratio of seven notes raga is around 60% of whole, while six notes and five notes raga is 20% each.
 B.C. Deva defined raga as follows: "The minimum number of notes for a raga is five and maximum is nine. There are however, exceptions." As he noted, there are exceptions.
 Four notes raga
Raga Bhavani/Sa(C) Ri(D) Ma(F) Dha(A) Sa'(C')
 As an example of a fairly rare raga, B.Subba Rao noted the three notes raga on his RAGANIDHI.
Raga Jardhar Sarang/Sa(C) Ri(D) ni(B♭) Sa'(C')

On the other hand, there are ragas like misra Bhairavi in which 12 notes are often used. So it can be said that Jati classification is a very rigorous method.