Bansuri player, producor for Hindustani music, Asian music and Shomyo performance

13. That Classification

 　That is a basic scale to contribute to classify ragas according to which notes in the octave are used. Bhatkhande classified ragas based on 10 that as follows. There are other taxonomies of the raga, but this method is common even now.
  1.Bilaval/Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa' (C D E F G A B C')
　2.Khamaj/Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha ni Sa' (C D E F G A B♭ C')
　3.Kafi/Sa Ri ga Ma Pa Dha ni Sa' ( C D E♭ F G A B♭ C')
　4.Asavari/Sa Rig a Ma Pa dha ni Sa' (C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C')
　5.Bhairav/Sa ri Ga Ma Pa dha Ni Sa' (C D♭ E F G A♭ B C')
　6.Bhairavi/Sa ri ga Ma Pa dha ni Sa' (C D♭ E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C')
　7.Kalyan/Sa Ri Ga ma Pa Dha Ni Sa' (C D E F# G A B C')
　8.Marva/Sa ri Ga ma Pa Dha Ni Sa' (C D♭ E F# G A B C')
　9.Purvi/Sa ri Ga ma Pa dha Ni Sa' (C D♭ E F# G A♭ B C')
 10.Todi/Sa rig a ma Pa dha Ni Sa' (C D♭ E♭ F# G A♭ B C')

 Table-32 shows number of ragas which are classified to thats. Table-33 shows names of ragas classified according to that.

Table-32

 Although 581 ragas are in Table-7, total number of ragas in Table-32 is 494. 87 ragas could not be classified to any that. It means that all ragas cannot be classified to certain that. And we need to notice that there are 32 ragas which can be classified to two thats. Some of them are noted as follows.() are names of that. Bihag(Bilaval, Kalyan), Gaud Malhar(Khamaj, Kafi), Gaud Bilaval(Bilaval, Khamaj), Suddh Sarang(Kafi, Kalyan). As this that classification cannot be applied to all ragas, Jayrazbhoy decided his own way of classification (The Ragas of Northern Indian Music). As mentioned, compared to 72 melakarta classification of Karnataka music, the that classification is an ambiguous method.
 What Table-32 shows is that ragas of Kafi that is the most (131), while of Todi and Bhairavi are least. The number of ragas of Bhairavi, Marva, Purvi and Todi that is 75. It is 15% of the whole. These musical scales have a common point that three semitones continue. The combination of three semitones is only two as follows.
Ni Sa ri (B C D♭)
ma Pa dha (F# G A♭)

The scales which have above combination of notes have a very characteristic mood. The reason why these that have less ragas might be because of their special atmosphere and difficulty to keep an accurate interval.