Madhurima Class 9 Chapter 8, Rāga and Tāla, builds on the basic terms of Indian music: nāda, śhruti, the seven svaras S R G M P D N, and the mandra, madhya and tāra saptak. It covers melody through rāga and rhythm through tāla.
What Madhurima Chapter 8 Covers
Svaras: seven notes, S R G M P D N. S and P are fixed (achala or prakṛiti svaras); R, G, M, D and N have higher and lower variants (chala or vikṛiti svaras), giving 12 note positions.
Classifying rāgas by number of notes: a rāga with 7 notes is saṁpūrṇa, with 6 ṣhāḍava, with 5 auḍava. Combining the ascending and descending scales gives nine jātis, such as ṣhāḍava-saṁpūrṇa.
Meḻakartā and thāṭ: Carnatic music derives 72 meḻakartā parent scales by permutation, a system set out by Venkatamakhi in the Chaturdaṇḍī-Prakāśhikā (eighteenth century). Hindustani music groups rāgas into thāṭs, the system of V.N. Bhatkhande. The legend of Tānsen singing Rāga Dīpaka, and being saved when his daughter Sarasvatī and her friend Rūpavatī sang Rāga Megha, is told here.
Compositions: Rāga Śhaṅkarābharaṇam (meḻakartā 29, saṁpūrṇa, like the Western major scale) with a jatisvaram in Kaṇṇaḍā and a svarajati in Haṁsadhvani. In Hindustani, Rāga Alhaiyā Bilāval (thāṭ Bilāval, vādī D, saṁvādī G, sung in the first prahara of the night) with a bandiśh and a lakṣhaṇa-gīta in Teen Tāla.
Tāla: Teen Tāla has 16 mātrās in 4 vibhāgs with tālī on 1, 5 and 13 and khālī on 9. Jhaptāla has 10 mātrās in 2-3-2-3. In Carnatic music, Ādi Tāla has 8 beats and Rūpaka 6, counted on the fingers.
Exercises in Chapter 8
- Explain ṣhāḍava-saṁpūrṇa, vibhāg and jāti in one line each.
- Give the jāti of a rāga with 6 notes going up and 6 coming down.
- Name two rāgas derived from Śhaṅkarābharaṇam.
- Fill in: the meḻakartā system was devised by ___; Bhatkhande grouped rāgas into the ___ system.
Read Madhurima Class 9 Chapter 8 Online
More Chapters
- Previous: Chapter 7: The Science of Music
- Next: Chapter 9: Music Travels Around the World
- All Art chapters and the other Class 9 books: Class 9 NCERT books 2026-27
FAQ
How many meḻakartā rāgas are there?
72. Venkatamakhi set out the system in his treatise Chaturdaṇḍī-Prakāśhikā in the eighteenth century.
How many beats are there in Teen Tāla?
16 mātrās in 4 vibhāgs, with tālī on beats 1, 5 and 13 and khālī on beat 9.