We’ve talked a lot about the poetic side of raags – mood, color, emotion. But under the poetry sits a fairly strict set of rules. These rules decide whether a melodic form qualifies as a raag in the classical sense.
Key structural rules
- The raag must belong to a thaat – its notes should be explainable as a subset or variant of a parent scale.
- It must have a defined Aaroha (ascending path) and Avaroha (descending path), even if these paths are not simple straight lines.
- There should be a clear Vaadi (most important note) and Samvaadi (second most important note). These are like the hero and heroine of the raag’s story.
- The raag must have Pakad (characteristic phrases) that distinguish it from neighboring raags using similar notes.
- There must be at least five swars used in the raag (between Aaroha and Avaroha combined). This still allows pentatonic (Audav) raags.
- The use of shuddha, komal, and teevra notes, and the way they are approached and left, should create a distinct identity.
- Certain direct successions, such as Shuddha Ga immediately followed by Komal Ga, are typically avoided in simple linear phrases; if used, they are handled via meend or grace notes.
These rules are not there to restrict creativity; they are there to make sure that when someone says “Raag Yaman” or “Raag Bhimpalasi”, every trained musician and listener has a shared sense of what that means.
Within that shared grammar, the freedom is enormous – which is why you can hear the same raag from a hundred artists and never get bored.