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31-510: Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (10 August 1860 – 19 September 1936) was an Indian musicologist who wrote the first modern treatise on Hindustani classical music , an art which had been propagated for centuries mostly through oral traditions. During those earlier times, the art had undergone several changes, rendering the raga grammar documented in scant old outdated texts. Ragas used to be classified into Raga (male), Ragini (female), and Putra (children). Bhatkhande reclassified them into

62-401: A classical musician and the pandit which is used as a title given to a knowledgeable person, are different. As ustad is equivalent to pandit but used for a Muslim man, similarly a music title that is equivalent to pandit and used for an Indian man itself is given the title of vidwan . Generally this title is given to a male Carnatic classical singer or instrument player. One prominent example

93-501: A common platform for discussion between Hindustani and Carnatic classical musicians. Bhatkhande suffered paralysis and a thigh fracture in 1933. He died on 19 September 1936, during Ganeshotsav in Mumbai. Pandit (music title) In Sanskrit , pandit generally refers to any "wise, educated or learned man" with specialized knowledge. The term is derived from paṇḍ ( पण्ड् ) which means "to collect, heap, pile up", and this root

124-442: A gifted musicologist in the 17th century, expounded a new mela system known today as mēḷakarta in his work Chaturdandi Prakaasikaa . He made some bold and controversial claims and defined somewhat arbitrarily 6 svaras from the known 12 semitones, at that time, to arrive at 72 mēḷakarta ragas. The controversial parts relate to double counting of R2 (and similar svaras ) and his exclusive selection of madhyamas for which there

155-435: A result, books carrying compositions yielded to theoretical texts. A recently developed notation system Ome Swarlipi follows the logical structure introduced by Pt. Bhatkhande but uses symbols instead of Devanagari alphabets. After traveling widely and having discussions with practitioners of various schools, Bhatkhande arranged all the ragas of Hindustani classical music across 10 musical scales , called thaats . Though

186-612: A student of the sitar and subsequently began studying Sanskrit texts that dealt with music theory . He completed a BA degree at Deccan College in Pune in 1885. In 1887, Bhatkhande graduated with a degree in law from Elphinstone College , affiliated with Bombay University and briefly pursued a career in criminal law. In 1884, Bhatkhande became a member of Gayan Uttejak Mandali , a music appreciation society in Bombay, which broadened his experience with music performance and teaching. He studied at

217-588: Is Vidwan Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram . For a female Carnatic classical singer or musician, the title of Vidushi is given. Equivalent titles for women are Vidushi or Pandita ( Sanskrit : पण्डिता , romanized :  paṇḍitā ; Hindi : पंडित ). The Kashmiri Pandits are a Hindu clan from the Kashmir Valley in Jammu and Kashmir . Pandit as a last name is used by both Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Muslim of Hindu lineage . Melakarta Mēḷakartā

248-496: Is a collection of fundamental musical scales ( ragas ) in Carnatic music (South Indian classical music). Mēḷakartā ragas are parent ragas (hence known as janaka ragas) from which other ragas may be derived. A melakarta raga is sometimes referred as mela , karta or sampurna as well, though the latter usage is inaccurate, as a sampurna raga need not be a melakarta (take the raga Bhairavi, for example). In Hindustani music

279-490: Is a mathematical process. By following a simple set of rules we can find the corresponding raga and the scale associated with it. A raga which has a subset of svarās from a Mēḷakarta raga is said to be a janya (means born or derived from) of that Mēḷakarta raga. Every raga is the janya of a mēḷakarta raga. Janya ragas whose notes are found in more than one mēḷakarta raga are assigned (or associated) parent Melakarta based on subjective notions of similarity. This

310-545: Is no specific reasoning (also known as asampurna melas as opposed to sampurna ragas ). However, today the 72 mēḷakarta ragas use a standardized pattern, unlike Venkatamakhi's pattern, and have gained a significant following. Govindhacharya is credited with the standardization of rules and known for giving different names for standard ragas that have a different structure but the same swaras as those proposed by Venkatamakhi. The scales in this page are those proposed by Govindaacharya. A hundred years after Venkatamakhin's time

341-578: Is now known as Bhatkhande Music Institute ( Deemed University ). Preparation of that course material was a landmark achievement of Bhatkhande since musical knowledge used to be passed on orally in earlier times from Gurus and Ustads to their disciples. Bhatkhande prepared the Hindustani Sangeet Kramik Pustak Maalika as a series of textbooks. He also started the tradition of the All India Music Conferences to provide

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372-553: Is obvious for ragas that have less than seven notes. For such ragas it can be associated with a Mēḷakarta which has any of the different swaras in that position. For example, Hindolam has Rishabha and Panchama missing. Hence, it could be considered a janya of Todi (also known as Hanumatodi ) which has shuddha rishabha or with Natabhairavi which has a chathushruti rishabha . It is popularly associated with Natabhairavi . The 72 Mēḷakarta ragas are split into 12 groups called chakrās , each containing 6 ragas. The ragas within

403-534: Is the 28th Mēḷakarta rāga. See Katapayadi sankhya for more details and examples. Each mēḷakarta raga has a different scale . This scheme envisages the lower Sa ( Keezh Shadja ), upper Sa ( Mael Shadja ) and Pa ( Panchama ) as fixed swaras , with the Ma ( Madhyama ) having two variants and the remaining swaras Ri ( Rishabha ), Ga ( Gandhaara ), Dha ( Dhaivata ) and Ni ( Nishaada ) as having three variants each. This leads to 72 seven-note combinations (scales) referred to as

434-488: Is the equivalent title for a Muslim man. Titles of pandit (and even ustad) are appended informally to the names of classical singers and players by their admirers, individuals or institutions, once they have reached eminence in their performing art, especially on public performances. As they are informal titles, mentioning names of eminent singers without those appendages is acceptable, unlike prefixes like Dr. awarded formally by educational institutions. The title pandit of

465-509: Is used as a music title. The title is awarded to musicians by their teachers, prominent individuals, or members of their gharana in recognition of their expertise. It is used in various languages including Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, Bengali , Punjabi and other languages which are there in India . An Indian woman, who is an expert in Indian classical music, is given the title of pandita or vidushi. Ustad

496-634: Is used in the sense of knowledge. The term is found in Vedic and post-Vedic texts, but without any sociological context. Pandit (abbreviated as Pt. and written as पंडीत / पंडित in Marathi / Hindi ) is an honorific title for an expert person in Indian classical singing and instrumental playing, used for an Indian musician. It is used in Hindustani classical music to recognize master performers for classical singing and other performing arts, like classical dance . It

527-478: The thaat is the rough equivalent of Melakartā . There are 10 thaats in Hindustani music, though the commonly accepted melakarta scheme has 72 ragas. Ragas must contain the following characteristics to be considered Melakarta : The mēḷa system of ragas was first propounded by Raamamaatya in his work Svaramelakalanidhi c. 1550. He is considered the father of mela system of ragas. Later, Venkatamakhin ,

558-673: The Katapayadi sankhya rule came to be applied to the nomenclature of the mēḷakarta ragas. The sankhya associates Sanskrit consonants with digits. The digits corresponding to the first two syllables of the name of a raga, when reversed, give the index of the raga. Thus the scale of a mēḷakarta raga can be easily derived from its name. The Sanskrit rule of “Sankhyānam vāmatò gatihi” means for arriving to digits, you read from right to left. For example, Harikambhoji raga starts with syllables Ha and ri , which have numbers 8 and 2 associated with them. Reversing them we get 28. Hence Harikambhoji

589-573: The Mēḷakarta ragas as follows. There are twelve semitones of the octave S, R1, R2=G1, R3=G2, G3, M1, M2, P, D1, D2=N1, D3=N2, N3 (see swaras in Carnatic music for explanation of these notations). A melakarta raga must necessarily have S and P, one of the M's, one each of the R's and G's, and one each of the D's and N's. Also, R must necessarily precede G and D must precede N ( krama sampūrṇa rāga). This gives 2 × 6 × 6 = 72 ragas. Finding mēḷakarta ragas

620-652: The Svaramelakalanidhi of Ramamatya , both treatises that sought to classify ragas. The two works along with others and his observations from his travels in North India enabled Bhatkhande to classify Hindustani ragas using a system of ten, much like the melakartas of the Carnatic style. Bhatkhande's first published work, Swar Malika , was a booklet containing detailed descriptions of all prevalent ragas. In 1909, he published Shri Mallakshaya Sangeetam , in Sanskrit, under

651-681: The Baroda state music school, and later, with the help of the Maharaja of Gwalior , established the Madhav Music College in Gwalior. In 1926, Rai Umanath Bali and his nephew Dr. Rai Rajeshwar Bali , then education minister of United Provinces, established Marris College of Music in Lucknow with Bhatkhande preparing the course material. The college was later renamed Bhatkhande College of Hindustani Music, and

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682-560: The Mandali for six years and learned a variety of compositions in both khayal and dhrupad forms under musicians such as Shri Raojibua Belbagkar and Ustad Ali Hussain. Music was still something of a leisurely pursuit for Bhatkhande until 1900 when his wife died, followed, in 1903, by the death of his daughter. This led to him abandoning his law practice and devoting his full attention to music. Bhatkhande traveled throughout India, meeting with ustads and pandits , and researching music. He began

713-407: The chakra differ only in the dhaivatam and nishadam notes (D and N), as illustrated below . The name of each of the 12 chakras suggest their ordinal number as well. These 12 chakras were also established by Venkatamakhi. The 72 Mēḷakartā ragas can be divided into two parts, shuddha madhyama and prati madhyama ragas. When a given shuddha madhyama raga's M1 is replaced by M2, we get

744-404: The corresponding prati madhyama raga. See Katapayadi sankhya for more information on how to derive the various swaras of a raga from its mēḷakartā number. See swaras in Carnatic music for explanation of the notations like R1, G2, N2, and so forth. Muthuswami Dikshitar school followed a different set of scales as the 72 Mēḷakarta ragas. These were taught by Venkatamakhin . Many of

775-624: The currently used thaat system. He noted that several ragas did not conform to their description in ancient Sanskrit texts. He explained the ragas in an easy-to-understand language and composed several bandishes which explained the grammar of the ragas. Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande was born on 10 August 1860 in Walkeshwar, Bombay . While not a professional musician himself, his father, who worked for an affluent businessman, ensured that Vishnu Narayan and his siblings received an education in classical music. After turning fifteen, Bhatkhande became

806-607: The language barrier made these interactions less fruitful than he expected. Notes from a journal maintained of his time there were later published as Meri Dakshin Bharat Ki Sangeet Yatra (My Musical Journey in Southern India). While his conversations with exponents of Carnatic music weren't very successful, Bhatkhande procured two valuable manuscripts on the art: the Chaturdandiprakashika by Venkatamakhin and

837-425: The notable scholars who followed in the footsteps of Bhatkhande. His notation system became standard and though later scholars like Pandit V. D. Paluskar , Pandit Vinayakrao Patwardhan and Pandit Omkarnath Thakur introduced their improved versions, it remained a publisher's favorite. It suffered a setback with the onset of desktop publishing, which found inserting marks above and below Devanagari text cumbersome; as

868-671: The pseudonym 'Chatur-pandit'. To make this cultural heritage accessible to the common man, he published commentary on his own Sanskrit grantha in Marathi over a span of several years; it was published over four volumes bearing the title: Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati . These volumes form today the standard text on Hindustani music, an indispensable starting point for any student of Hindustani Classical Music. His disciple S N Ratanjankar , famous musician Shri. Dilip Kumar Roy , Ratanjankar's disciple K. G. Ginde , S.C.R. Bhatt, Ram Ashrey Jha 'Ramrang' , Sumati Mutatkar and Krishna Kumar Kapoor are among

899-560: The study of ancient texts such as the Natya Shastra and Sangeet Ratnakara . After the death of his wife and his daughter, Bhatkhande abandoned his legal practice and devoted the rest of his life to systematising the prevailing forms of Hindustani music and building on that system a coordinated theory and practice of music. During his travels in India, he spent time in the then princely states of Baroda , Gwalior , and Rampur . In Rampur he

930-508: The thaats do not encompass all possible ragas, they do cover the vast majority and are a key contribution to Indian musical theory. The thaat structure corresponds to the melakarta system of raga arrangement in Carnatic music , the south Indian variety of Indian classical music . Bhatkhande wrote all of his works under one of the two pseudonyms , Vishnu Sharma and Chaturpandit. Bhatkhande started schools and colleges in India for systematic teaching of Hindustani music. In 1916, he reorganized

961-635: Was the disciple of legendary veena Player Ustad Wazir Khan, a descendant of Miyan Tansen . Bhatkhande travelled to South India, arriving in Madras (now Chennai) in 1904. With the help of local contacts he began to familiarise himself with the world of Carnatic music . He established contact with stalwarts such as Tiruvottriyur Tyagayyar and Tachur Singaracharya in Madras, Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar in Ramanathapuram and Subbarama Dikshitar in Ettayapuram but

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