The actual state of the raga in Hindustani music through examined data from discographies and written materials from the 1950s till today
12. Time Association of raga
After this item I discuss based on the raga list of Table-7.
It is said that each raga should be played at a certain time or season in general in Hindustani music. Actually, musicians sometimes announce, "this is an evening raga" with the raga name just before the performance. It is well known that Megh, Malhar, etc., are rainy season ragas, so Malkauns, Bagesri, etc., are of midnight ragas.
In his Introduction to Indian Music, Deva noted that Bhatkhande tried to theorize on this theme. Bhatkhande noticed two factors which make time association of raga as follows.
1. Certain notes included in a raga
If a raga has ri(D♭) or Ga(E) or dha(A♭) or Ni(B), the time zone of raga is twilight. On the other hand, if Ri(D), Ga(E), Dha(A) or Ni(B) are included, time zone becomes morning after dawn or the second period of night after dusk. Ragas having ga(E♭)or ni(B♭) should be played in the third and fourth section of night.
2. Position of key note
Key note (vadi) is the most important note which gives the characteristic of the raga. If it is on lower tetra-chord , a raga is called Purva raga and if on upper tetra-chord, it is called Uttara raga. Purva raga is played from noon to midnight and Uttara raga from midnight to noon.
However this theory does not have sociological and psychological premises and is only a statement of tradition.
Nonetheless, most musicians are still conscious of the time association of raga. It is usually noted in record commentaries as well.
There is no raga time system in Karnataka music. There is no strict determinative on a certain note. If a morning raga is mixed with an evening raga, how can the time zone be determined? As just described, it is very difficult to talk about time association of raga logically. It therefore seems that surveying raga time from data of discographies and books do not make too much sense. I still think it might help to understand the state of raga to some extent.
Traditionally a day is often divided into 8 units (Prahar) of three hours in India. Raga time is also basically divided according to this tradition. If the sunrise is 6:00 am, each unit is divided as follows.
Time zone |
Time |
Day’s first Prahar |
6:00-9:00 am |
Day’s second Prahar |
9:00-12:00 am |
Day’s third Prahar |
0:00-3:00 pm |
Day fourth Prahar |
3:00-6:00 pm |
Night’s first Prahar |
6:00-9:00 pm |
Night’s second Prahar |
9:00-12:00 pm |
Night’s third Prahar |
0:00-3:00 am |
Night’s fourth Prahar |
3:00-6:00 am |
Raga time is shown sometimes as certain Prahar or simply and roughly as "early morning", "morning", "afternoon", "night" and "midnight" on most raga collection books. Some ragas do not mention time.
Table-29 shows the classification of raga according to time. And Table-30 shows number of raga in each time unit.
Time unit |
Number of raga |
Early morning |
56 |
Morning |
22 |
Day’s first Prahar |
27 |
Day’s second Prahar |
45 |
Noon |
18 |
Day’s third Prahar |
20 |
Day’s fourth Prahar |
8 |
Day |
3 |
Sunset |
7 |
Evening |
42 |
Night’s first Prahar |
41 |
Night’s second Prahar |
101 |
Night |
44 |
Night’s third Prahar |
33 |
Midnight |
38 |
Night’ fourth Prahar |
28 |
Rainy season |
24 |
Spring season |
3 |
Total |
560 |
Table-30
Table-30 show that there are predominantly many ragas of the night’s second Prahar.
If early morning, morning and day’s first Prahr are put into "morning", day’s second Prahar, day, sunset, evening into "day", night’s first Prahar, night into "night", night’s third and fourth Prahar, midnight into "midnight", another classification can be shown as Table-31. Number in () is a percentage.
Time unit |
Number of raga |
Morning |
105(20) |
Day |
143(26) |
Night |
186(35) |
Midnight |
99(19) |
Total |
533(100) |
Table-31
If a day is divided into day and night, number of day raga is 248 and night raga, 285. Number of night ragas is more than day ragas. But it seems like a comparatively balanced ratio. Tradition may have unconsciously created the balance.