Svar, Raga and Scale Fundamentals
Domain 1 tests your command of svara vocabulary and your ability to separate a thaat (parent scale) from a raga (performed melody).
Svara basics
A saptak holds twelve svaras: seven shuddha (S R G M P D N) and five vikrit - komal Re, Ga, Dha, Ni and tivra Ma. Sa and Pa are achal (immovable) and take no komal or tivra form. Svaras sit in mandra, madhya and tar saptak.
Thaat versus raga
Bhatkhande's ten thaats - Bilawal, Khamaj, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi, Bhairav, Kalyan, Marwa, Poorvi, Todi - are scales only: an unordered set of notes with no vadi and no fixed aroha-avaroha. A raga adds aroha, avaroha, vadi, samvadi, anuvadi, vivadi, pakad, jati and samay. Aroha-avaroha may be vakra (zig-zag) or varjit (a note omitted).
Worked example
Name the thaat and lakshana of Yaman. Aroha: S R G M^ P D N S; avaroha: S N D P M^ G R S. Only Ma is tivra, all other svaras are shuddha, and the scale is sampurna in both directions. Bilawal has both Ma shuddha and Poorvi has komal Re with tivra Ma, so a single tivra Ma with everything else shuddha fixes Kalyan thaat. Vadi is Ga, samvadi Ni, and the raga belongs to the evening.
Traps
Calling a thaat a raga; writing both Ma in Yaman; describing komal svaras as flat notes instead of naming them; confusing the vadi with whichever note happens to occur most often in one composition.