Hindustani Vocal Raga Repertoire: Prescribed Ragas and Their Lakshanas
What the exam tests
This paper asks you to reproduce, not merely recognise, the prescribed ragas. For each raga keep a seven-line card: aroha, avaroha, pakad, vadi, samvadi, jati and samay. The exact prescribed list is set by your syllabus; build the cards from that list rather than a commercial summary.
Core rules
- Aroha and avaroha show permitted melodic order, not a detached scale. Omitted notes in one direction change jati.
- Jati counts notes used in ascent and descent: audav 5, shadav 6, sampurna 7. Write both, e.g. audav-sampurna.
- Vadi is the raga's principal note; samvadi is its consonant partner. They are not simply the first and fifth notes.
- Pakad is a short identifying phrase; it must contain a characteristic move, not a plain scale run.
- Samay is a prahar; state the period, not just morning or night.
Worked example
Bhimpalasi: aroha n S g M P n S' (R and D omitted); avaroha S' n D P M g R S; pakad n S g M, P M g R S; vadi M, samvadi S; jati audav-sampurna; samay third prahar (late afternoon). Reasoning: five notes up and seven down give the jati; komal ga and ni plus the vadi Ma shape the pakad; the ascent omission is deliberate, not an error.
Traps
Writing all seven notes in aroha to be safe; confusing Bhimpalasi with Bageshri; giving Sa as samvadi for every raga; treating pakad as any aroha fragment; omitting the prahar number.