Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

singing patterns Vakra ragas treat the order of the swaras in their own characteristic way.

Vakra raga: The word vakra can be literally translated as crooked. In music, a vakra raga is one in which the notes are sung in a characteristic order of their own, and not in the normal order of the scale that goes from lower Sa to upper Sa.

Take the raga Bageshwari. A characteristic way of singing the notes in the ascending order is Sa Ni Dha Ma Pa Dha Ma Ga Re Sa. This way of singing deviates from the normal order of swaras. Otherwise, in descending order, Dha would have been followed by Pa.

In Carnatic music, the aroha (ascending pattern) of Riti Gowla, a typical vakra raga, is: Sa Ga Ri Ga Ma Ni Dha Ma Ni Ni Sa. Its avaroha is: Sa Ni Dha Ma Ga Ma Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail