Explain the types of Raga Sarang

Question

Explain the 'Thaat' of different kinds of raga Sarang. Which type of raga Sarang belongs with which Thaat?

Answer 1

This is a very interesting question.

Basically, Vrindavani Sarang is considered to be the original form of Sarang, and the aroh and avaroh of this raga are S R m P N S'/S n P m R S. As you can see, both variants of nishaad (shuddha and komal) are used, and gandhaar is absent. Yet, this raga is placed in the Kafi Thaat. The reason for this is that it has a structure very similar to Raag Kafi with the omission of dhaivat and gandhaar. As for the shuddha ni, the use of it in the aaroh is quite a typical feature in other Kafi Thaat ragas too. For instance, Raag Miya ki Malhar, Raag Bahaar, etc.

Pt. Vijay Koparkar explains why Sarang is placed in the Kafi Thaat in this video.

Moving on, Madhmaad Sarang is almost exactly like Vrindavani Sarang, except that it does not use the shuddha ni in the aroh. It uses the komal ni in both aroh and avaroh. S R m P n S' / S' n P m R S.

Shuddha Sarang, which has recently gained greater popularity, is somewhat different from the previous two ragas. Its aroh and avaroh are S R M P N S' / S' N D P M P m R 'N S. I think the reason it is called "Shuddha" Sarang is because it uses shuddha ni instead of the more typical komal ni used in Sarang ragas. But notice how both variants of madhyam (shuddha and tivra) are also used.

This makes classifying Shuddha Sarang more confusing, but some vidvaans place it in the Kafi Thaat because it is a type of Sarang, while others place it in the Kalyan Thaat because of the use of tivra madhyam.

As you can see, the Thaat system is not flawless. It is quite a useful system for classifying ragas based on the notes they use, but when a raga uses fewer than 7 notes, or when it uses both variants of a certain note, it becomes difficult to classify it under a Thaat without giving rise to some questions.

The raagaang classification, meanwhile, classifies ragas into "families" based on their origins, history, and structure, rather than simply the set of notes they use. Under this classification, all the Sarang ragas are placed in the Sarang family.