CHSE Odisha Elective Indian Music key terms

The fundamental sound or sonic substance from which all music is held to arise in Indian thought; texts distinguish struck (ahat) from unstruck (anahat) sound and treat controlled nada as the raw material of svara.

The smallest theoretically recognised interval of pitch in Indian music; classical texts name twenty-two shrutis in the octave, though modern practice treats them as microtonal positions rather than fixed equal steps.

A musical note considered as a functional pitch within a scale; the seven basic svaras are named Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni, with komal and tivra variants altering specific degrees.

The set of seven svaras spanning an octave, from Sa to the next higher Sa; it may be sung or played in mandra (lower), madhya (middle) or tar (upper) register.

A modified note, either komal (flattened) or tivra (sharpened), as opposed to a shuddha or natural note; only Re, Ga, Dha and Ni take komal forms and only Ma takes a tivra form.

A natural, unmodified degree of the seven-note scale, sung at its plain position; in Bilawal all seven svaras are shuddha, which is why that scale is used as the reference for the natural degrees.

The lowered or flattened form of a note, marked in notation by a small underline; komal Re, Ga, Dha and Ni lie a semitone below their shuddha positions in the standard practical tuning.

The raised or sharpened form of a note, marked in notation by a short vertical line above; in practice only Ma has a tivra form, a semitone above shuddha Ma, as heard in ragas such as Yaman.

A vocal or instrumental register; the three recognised sthanas are mandra (low), madhya (middle) and tar (high), and a performer must be able to move cleanly between them while keeping the tonic fixed.

The principal or sonant note of a raga, the pitch on which the melody dwells most and around which its phrases are shaped; it is often called the king of the raga.

The second most important note of a raga, usually a fourth or fifth from the vadi; it supports the vadi and helps define the raga's character and time of performance.

An assisting note of a raga, present in its scale but neither vadi nor samvadi; it fills out phrases and is subordinate in emphasis to the two principal notes.

A note that appears in a raga's parent scale but is excluded from the raga itself, or is used only in passing; sounding it as a main note is treated as an error of raga grammar.

The four kinds of melodic movement in singing: sthayi (level), arohi (ascending), avarohi (descending) and sanchari (wandering); varna describes how phrases move rather than what notes they use.

An ornament or patterned melodic figure used to decorate a raga, such as gamaka, murki or khatka; the term also names the graded exercises that train a student in svara patterns.

Any expressive ornament that shapes a note, including smooth slides, oscillations and deflections; different ragas require characteristic gamakas, and a note without the right gamaka may fail to identify the raga.

A continuous glide from one note to another, produced without a break in sound; it is central to the identity of many ragas and is written in notation with a curved line joining the two svaras.

A grace note touched very briefly before or after a main note, giving it a subtle embellishment; it is not counted as part of the raga's scale and is marked in notation by a small svara symbol.

A melodic framework defined by a fixed scale with vadi and samvadi, characteristic ascending and descending phrases, and rules of ornamentation; it provides material for improvisation and composition without prescribing exact tunes.

The ascending order of notes used in a raga; it may differ from the descending order, and such asymmetry (as in ragas that skip a note going up but include it coming down) is a key identifying feature.

The descending order of notes used in a raga; comparing aroha and avaroha is the standard first step in analysing an unfamiliar raga, since many ragas are not symmetrical.

A short, memorable phrase or set of phrases that captures the essential movement of a raga and allows it to be recognised; it is often more diagnostic than a bare scale listing.

The characteristic gait or melodic behaviour of a raga, covering typical phrases, emphases and movements; two ragas sharing a scale are distinguished by chalan rather than by their notes alone.

In the Hindustani Bhatkhande system, a parent scale of seven notes from which ragas are derived; ten such thatas are recognised, and a raga is assigned to the thata whose notes it shares.

In Carnatic music, one of the seventy-two parent scales generated by a systematic scheme of twelve pitch positions; each melakarta contains all seven notes and is numbered for identification.

The rhythmic cycle that measures music, built from a fixed number of beats grouped into vibhagas and marked by claps, waves and silent counts; common cycles include teental, jhaptal and rupak.

A single beat or rhythmic unit within a tala cycle; counting matras aloud or with hand gestures is basic training, and compositions are measured in matras rather than in seconds.

A section or bar of a tala cycle containing a fixed group of matras, such as the four groups of four in teental; vibhagas are marked by tali or khali at their starting points.

The first and most important beat of a tala cycle, where the main phrase of a composition resolves; performers aim to land together on sam, and it is marked by a clap in notation.

A clapped or sounded beat marking the start of a vibhaga; talis give the cycle its audible shape and are numbered, so a tala can be described by its pattern of talis and khalis.

An unmarked or waved beat, literally empty, indicating a section where the hand is not struck; khali sections often carry lighter melodic or percussive treatment and help listeners track the cycle.

Tempo or speed of rhythmic movement, commonly described as vilambit (slow), madhya (medium) or drut (fast); laya may also be varied systematically in a performance through layakari.

The art of playing or singing rhythmic patterns at multiples or fractions of the prevailing tempo, such as two notes per beat or three per two beats, while keeping the cycle intact.

Singing or writing melodic passages using svara syllables (Sa Re Ga Ma) rather than words; sargam notation is the standard way of recording a raga's phrases and compositions in Hindustani music.

A written record of pitch and rhythm; Hindustani practice commonly uses letter symbols for svaras with marks for komal and tivra, bars for vibhagas, and numbers or symbols for tali, khali and sam.

A graded exercise that permutes svara patterns to train the voice, commonly practised in ascending and descending sequences; paltas build accuracy in pitch and prepare the student for raga phrases.

A fixed composition in Hindustani music set in a raga and tala, usually with a sthayi and antara section; it provides the anchor from which improvisation such as alap and taan is developed.

The first section of a composition, setting words and melody in the lower and middle register and usually returning to sam; the term is unrelated to the note Sa's register meaning, so context matters.

The second section of a composition, generally pitched higher than the sthayi and introducing new words; in many bandish forms it moves into the upper register before the piece returns to the sthayi.

The unmetred, slowly unfolding introduction of a raga, presenting its notes and phrases without percussion; it establishes the raga's mood and is followed by compositions in tala.

A fast, often patterned passage of svaras used in performance, ranging from simple scales to complex rhythmic designs; taans are improvised within the raga and tala and must resolve on sam.

The general term for a musical instrument; classical texts classify vadyas into four groups, namely stringed (tata), wind (sushira), percussion with skin (avanaddha) and solid percussion (ghana).

The stringed class of instruments, sounded by plucking or bowing a stretched string; examples include the sitar, sarod, tanpura and violin, and the class is further divided into plucked and bowed types.

The wind class of instruments, sounded by blowing air through a tube or across an edge; examples include the bansuri, shehnai and nagaswaram, and tuning depends on the length of the air column.

The percussion class whose instruments have a stretched skin or membrane over a resonator, such as the tabla, mridangam and pakhawaj; these instruments carry the tala in performance.

The solid percussion class of instruments that produce sound from their own material without a stretched membrane or string, such as bells, cymbals and the jaltarang.

An ancient Sanskrit treatise on drama, dance and music attributed to Bharata; it discusses nada, shruti, svara, grama and the earliest tala concepts, making it a foundational source for Indian music theory.

A thirteenth-century Sanskrit treatise on music by Sarangadeva that consolidates earlier theory, describes ragas, talas and instruments, and became a standard reference for later writers in both Hindustani and Carnatic traditions.

A school or lineage of Hindustani music defined by a shared style, repertoire and teaching tradition, often named after a city or region; gharanas shape vocal and instrumental technique but are not rigid rules.

The oldest surviving major form of Hindustani vocal music, austere and metrically structured, commonly set in chautal or dhamar and developed with alap, nominal passages and composed verses.

A major Hindustani vocal form in which a short composition in a raga and tala is expanded through improvised alap, taans and rhythmic play; it became dominant from the eighteenth century onward.

Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, a twentieth-century musicologist who systematised Hindustani ragas under ten thatas, developed a widely used notation, and promoted institutional teaching of music through conferences and colleges.

Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, a twentieth-century vocalist and educator who founded the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and spread formal music education to the public, contributing to notation and graded teaching methods.