Chapter 2

Grammatical Structures of the Ten Common Thaats of North

Indian Classical Music: A Mathematical Approach

“We can no more come to understand mathematics by examining its final product than

we can understand the experience of music through simply looking at a score or an

analysis of one; there is an experience that lies underneath and behind the systematic

organization of the material”- Edward Rothstein

2.1 Introduction:

In Indian music, two systems of scales are found to be prevalent, South Indian or

Carnatic music and North Indian or Hindustani classical music. The South Indian

classical music consists of 72 scales whereas the North Indian classical music is based

on 32 scales called thaats. A scale is defined as a series of notes, arranged by order of

pitch, between a root and the octave. Theoretically, any combination of notes between

the root and octave could be considered a scale. A musical note is again a type of

notation which is used to represent the pitch and duration corresponding to a musical

sound. An octave refers to a range of notes, with the highest one being two times in

frequency compared to the first. Traditionally music is thought to be made of seven

basic notes both in Indian and western music. These are denoted as S, R, G, m, P, D and

N. The eighth note would be double in frequency to the first note. Now out of these

seven notes the notes (S) and (P) are immovable and are called Achala Swar. These two

notes form the tonal foundation for all the Indian classical music. The remaining five

notes viz. R, G, M, P, D, N on the other hand can be modified in pitch. They have

alternate forms and are called Chala Swar. Out of the five alternate forms four are

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komal or flat viz. (r, g, d, n) and one sharp or teevra viz. (M). Thus the full twelve tone

scale is represented as S, r, R, g, G, m, M, P, d, D, n and N. Just a note and its overtones

can’t be used to create music. The series of notes are to be used in such a manner that

they differ in pitch, as well as create a pleasant experience. A raga which is a

fundamental feature of Hindustani classical music is derived from a parent heptatonic

scale known as thaats. Although theoretically thirty-two thaats are considered possible,

most modern musicians today follow the raga classification scheme under ten scales or

thaats as suggested by the Indian musicologist Pt Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande.

Bhatkhande’s theory of ten thaats is still regarded as an important classificatory device

for ordering or grouping a huge array of ragas. The aim of this chapter is to study the

grammatical structure of the ten thaats suggested by Pandit Vishnu Narayan

Bhatkhande. The concept of ordered structure function, level of association among notes

are then utilized for illustrating the process of construction of the ten thaats that are

unique in nature. The graph theoretic approach has also been considered for presentation

of the ten thaats. This chapter is thus organised as follows. Section 2.2 discusses thaats

and its characteristics. A brief review of literature on this chapter is included in Section

1.4 of chapter 1. The Section 2.3 of this chapter presents the notes corresponding to the

different thaats in a matrix form. Section 2.4 deals with the behavior of the notes in

thaats. Section 2.5 explains the behavior of the pair of thaats with respect to the notes.

Section 2.6 discusses in detail the process of identifying a thaat using ordered structure

functions. In Section 2.7 thaats are numerically presented in terms of decimal

numbers.Section 2.8 deals with the diagrammatic presentation of thaats with respect to

the notes. In Section 2.9 thaats are presented as directed graphs. A discussion on the

results obtained is then presented at the end of the chapter.

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2.2 Ten Thaats and their common characteristics:

According to Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, a thaat must fulfill the following

conditions:

1) A thaat must consist of seven consecutive notes out of all the 12 notes. Again both

the pure and modified forms of a note cannot be used in a thaat.

2) A thaat has only ascending order and no descending order.

3) A thaat does not have any emotional or aesthetic value.

4) In every thaat there is one raga that usually has the name of the thaat and others,

which are derived from that thaat, by dropping one or more notes from the parent

scales.

In short, it can be said that of all possible musical scales only heptatonic scales

satisfying the above conditions can be considered as a thaat. The ten thaats according to

Bhatkhande(1993) are presented below.

Table 2.1: The ten thaats along with their note combinations

Name of the Flat(Komal)or

Note Combination
Thaat Sharp(Teevra) Notes

Bilawal S , R ,G , m , P , D , N All Pure notes

Khamaj S , R ,G , m , P , D , n N Flat

Kalyan S , R ,G , M , P , D , N m Sharp

Bhairav S,r ,G,m,P, d,N R , D Flat

Kafi S,R,g,m,P,D,n G , N Flat

Marwa S,r,G,M,P,D,N R Flat , m Sharp

44
 Asawari S,R,g,m,P,d,n G , D, N Flat

Poorvi S,r,G,M,P,d,N m Sharp , R , D Flat

Todi S,r,g,M,P,d,N m Sharp , R , G , D

Flat

Bhairavi S,r,g,m,P,d,n R , G , D , N Flat

2.3 Thaat presentation in matrix form:

As mentioned earlier these ten thaats are certain heptatonic scales characterized by the

arrangement of the notes in a sequential order. Therefore the theory of matrices can play

a significant role in summarizing the presentation of these thaats in a concise form.

Let apj = 1, if jth note is present in the pth thaat

= 0, otherwise

for all p =Bilawal(Bil),Khamaj(Kha),Kafi(Kaf),Asawari(Asa),Bhairav(Bhai),

Bhairavi(Bha),Kalyan(Kal),Marwa(Mar),Poorvi(Poo) and Todi(Tod).

and j = S, r, R, g, G, … , n, N.

Relabeling p and j as p = i, ii, iii, …, x and j = 1, 2, 3, …, 12 the ten thaats are presented

below.

45
Thaat –note matrix

It is verified that Rank A = 6, which indicates that there are six independent thaats in the

group of ten thaats and others are dependent on them. The rank of the above matrix is

computed using online matrix calculator.

2.4 Behavior of the notes in the Thaats:

The ten thaats are constructed from twelve notes combined in a group of seven notes

using some well defined rules as mentioned in Section 2.2. These rules are used for

construction of the thaats. Since these ten thaats are based on twelve notes, thaats are

overlapping with respect to the notes. The presence of common notes in thaats makes

them similar to some extent.

The notes S(1) and P(8) are present in all the 10 thaats.

The notes used in all the thaats in order of their frequency are (1,8), (6,12),

(2,3,4,5,9,10) and (7,11) and their corresponding frequencies are 10, 6 , 5, 4 and 3. The

use of komal (flat), teevra (sharp) notes and corresponding shuddha (pure) notes in all

46
the thaats reveals an interesting property viz. r:R = 5:5, g:G =4:6, m:M = 6:4, d:D = 5:5,

n:N = 4:6. The reason behind adopting m:M = 6:4 and n:N = 4:6 is that notes M and n

are not allowed to appear at the same in a Thaat.

2.5 Behavior of the pair of Thaats with respect to the notes:

Since there are 10 thaats in total we obtain10C2 = 45 pairs of thaats which may be

compared with respect to the notes present.

Level of Association: The level of association is defined by the number of elements

present in intersection of thaats.

From the thaat –note matrix it is clear that intersection of all thaats is represented by the

set {1,8}.

Let Tp j(k) be the intersection of thaat p and j with size k where p, j = i, ii, iii, iv, … ,x and

k = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Let Tp j(k) = (npj(k1), npj(k2), npj(k3) ,…, npj(kk)), where npj(kl) is the lth note in the intersection

of (p, j)th pair of thaat, for kth level of association of notes with npj(k1)< npj(km) for l<m

and npj = 1,2,3,… ,12. The last note npj(kk) represents the kth position of a note in the

intersection of (p,j)th pair of thaats for ‘k’ level association between notes. The pair of

thaats Tpj(k) are shown in the following table

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 Table2.2: Intersection of pairs of thaats

LEVEL OF ASSOCIATION
I

N 6 5 4 3 2
{1,3,5,6,8,10}=Ti {1,3,6,8,10}= Ti {1,3,6,8}=Ti {1,6,8}=Ti {1,8}=T ii
(6) (5) (4) (3) (2)
T ii iii iv vi x

{1,3,5,8,10,12}=Ti {1,5,6,8,12}=Ti {1,5,8,12}=Ti {1,8,12}=Ti {1,8}=T iii

(6) (5) (4) (3) (2)
E vii v ix x ix

{1,5,8,10,12}=T
{1,3,6,8,10,11}=T {1,5 ,6 ,8 }=T {1,5,8}=T ii {1,8}=T iv
(6) i (4) (3) (2)
ii iii (5) ii v ix viii
R viii

{1,3,4,6,8,11}=T {1,3,6,8,11}=T {1,6,8,11}=Tii {1,6,8}=Tiii {1,8}=T

(6) (5) (4) (3) (2)
S iii iv ii iv vi v vi vii

{1,4,6,8,9,11}=T iv {1,3,5,8,10}=T {1,5,8,10}=T ii {1,8,10}=T iii

(6) (5) (4) (3)
E vi ii vii viii viii

{1,2,5 ,8,9,12}= T {1,4,6,8,11}=T {1,3,8,10}=T {1,4,8}=T iii

(6) (5) (4) (3)
C v ix iii vi iii vii x

{1,5,7,8,10,12}= T {1,2 ,6,8,9}= T v {1,6,8,9}=Tiv {1,3,8}=T iv

(6) (5) (4) (3)
T vii viii vi v vii

{1,2,5,7,8,12}=T {1,2,5 ,8,12 }= {1,4,8,9}=T iv {1,8,9}=T iv

(6) (5) (4) (3)
I viii ix T v viii x ix

{1,2,7,8,9,12}=T {1,2, 8,9,12}= T {1,5 ,8,12 }=T {1,2,8}=T vi

(6) (5) (4) (3)
O ix x vx v vii viii

{1,2,4 ,8 ,9 }=T {1,2,8,9 }=T vi

(5) (4)
N vi x ix

{1,5,7,8,12}=T {1,7,8,12}=
(5) (4)
S vii ix Tvii x

{1,2,7,8,12}=T
(5)
viii x

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Observations:

1 The presence of the notes 1 and 8 [i.e. S(1) and P(8)] in the intersection of a

particular pair indicates the minimum lowest level of association between the

pair of Thaats. Similarly {(1,2,8), (1,3,8), (1,4,8), (1,5,8), (1,6,8), (1,8,9),

(1,8,10), (1,8,12)} indicates the minimum three level association between the

thaats .

2 Higher level of association does not imply lower level of association between the

same pairs.

3 Inclusion or exclusion of a particular note in an intersection set sometimes

changes both the constituents of the pair.

4 Higher the level of association greater is the problem of identification of thaats.

While forming an association of notes of any level the pair of thaats already makes their

presence visible in the association. The constituents of a pair of thaat automatically

changes with the corresponding change in the level of association.

The pair of thaats with respect to maximum level of association may be presented by a

two way table as follows:

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Table 2.3: Pair of thaats corresponding to level of association

Bil Kha Kaf Asa Bhai Bha Kal Mar Poo Tod
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii) (ix) (x)

Bil (i) 6 5 4 5 3 6 5 4 3

Kha (ii) 6 5 4 4 5 4 3 2

Kaf (iii) 6 3 5 4 3 2 3

Asa (iv) 4 6 3 2 3 4

Bhai (v) 5 4 5 6 5

Bha (vi) 2 3 4 5

Kal (viii) 6 5 4

Ma r(ix) 6 5

Poo (x) 6

From Table 2.3 it is clear that the total number of six-level associations, five-level

associations, four-level associations, three-level associations and two-level associations

are 9, 12, 11, 9 and 4 respectively.

Observations:

(i) Because of the well defined rule for inclusion of notes in a particular thaat if Tpj(k) =

(np j(k1), npj(k2), npj(k3), … npj(kk)) and Tsj(k) = (nsj(k1), nsj(k2), nsj(k3), … nsj(kk)) are identical,

it implies that Tps(k) is not identical with either of Tpj(k) and Tsj(k) even if Tpj(k) = Tsj(k)

(Table 2.2)

(ii) It may be easily shown that Ti iii (5) = Ti ii iii (5), Tii iv (5) = Tii iii iv (5), Ti viii (5) = Ti vii viii (5),

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 (5)
T iv vi = Tiii iv vi (5), Tvii ix(5) = Tvii viii ix (5 ) , Tviii x
(5)
= Tviii ix x (5)
where Tp j s(k)

represents a set of k elements common to thaats p, j and s. For p, j, s = i, ii, iii, … ,

x and k = 3,4,5.

2.6 Process of construction of Thaat using ordered structure function:

The process of construction of thaats using level of association of notes starts with three

level and ends with six-level of association. The following example makes it clear.

Since notes (1,8) are present in all the thaats, rest of ten notes viz. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10,

11 and 12 may be introduced one by one till a six-level association of notes is found.

One more note included from rest of the six notes identifies the thaat. The 10 notes

combined in a group of two notes construct five parallel structures with corresponding

state vectors (2,3), (4,5), (6,7), (9,10) and (11,12).

2.6.1 Structure function of the notes in the level of association:

Let xi be the ith note in the group of 12 notes such that xi=i for i=1,2,...,12.

These xi‘s assumes value 1 or 0 with respect to their presence or absence in a particular

thaat. The third level association between notes may now be defined as a 4 unit

structure function as follows:

Define S(x) =1 if a particular structure is valid

=0 otherwise.

where X = (x i) is a vector with four elements.

To obtain the corresponding structure function of third level we consider the following

51
five two unit parallel system of notes viz.

(i) x2 & x3

(ii) x 4 & x5

(iii)x6 & x7

(iv) x9 & x10

(v) x11 & x12.

The units x1 & x8 are then connected in series to any of these system in such a way that

the character x 1 < x2<…< x12 is maintained in determining the position of notes in the

association.

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Fig 2.1: Three unit structures.

The five parallel systems defined above along with units x1 & x8 in series results S(x)=1

with state vectors

(i) (x1 x2 x3 x8) => either (1,1,0,1) or (1,0,1,1)

53
(ii) (x1 x4 x5 x8) => either (1,0,1,1) or (1,1,01)

(iii) (x1 x6 x7 x8) => only (1,1,0,1)

54
(iv)(x1 x8 x9 x10) => either (1,1,0,1) or (1,1,1,0)

(v) (x1 x8 x11 x12)=>.only (1,1,0,1)

55
From each of the above five two unit parallel systems we could have obtained a

maximum of ten three unit structures occurring in five pairs as shown in (i), (ii), (iii),

(iv) and (v). However the association of notes defined in (iii) and (v) shows the sole

occurrence of (x1 x6 x8) and (x1 x8 x12) respectively. This is mainly because of the

properties m:M=6:4 and n:N=4:6 as observed in Section 1. These two combinations

appear twice in the set of third level association.

These third level associations appear now as series systems which are connected to

two unit parallel structures defined above constructing 4-out-of-5 structure function.

The structure function S(x)=1 may now be redefined as a state vector with 5 elements as

follows:

(i) (x1 x2 x8 x9 x10) => only (1,1,1,1,0) = {1,2,8,9 } = T vi ix(4)

(ii) (x1 x2 x3 x6 x8) => only (1,0,1,1,1) = {1,3,6,8} = Ti iv(4)

(iii) (x1 x2 x3 x8 x10) => only (1,0,1,1,1) = {1,3,8,10} = T iii vii(4)

(iv) (x1 x4 x5 x8 x9) => only (1,1,0,1,1) = {1,4,8,9} = T iv x(4)

(vi) (x1, x5, x6, x7, x8) => only (1,1,1,0,1) = {1,5 ,6 ,8 } = T ii v(4)

(vii) (x1 x5 x8 x9 x10) => only (1,1,1,0,1) = {1,5,8,10} = T ii viii(4)

(viii) (x1 x4 x5 x8 x12) => only (1,0,1,1,1) = {1,5 ,8,12 } = T v vii(4)

(ix) (x1 x6 x7 x8 x9) => only (1,1,0,1,1) = {1,6,8,9} = Tivv(4)

(x) (x1 x6 x8 x11 x12) => only (1,1,1,1,0 = {1,6,8,11} = Tiivi(4)

(xi) (x1 x6 x7 x8 x12) => only (1,0,1,1,1) = {1,7,8,12} = Tvii x(4)

As an illustration the diagrammatic representations of two of the above structures are

demonstrated below viz. structures (i) and (ix).

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 Fig 2.2: Four unit structures

These four level associations viz. [(i), ii),(iii), …, (xi)] now behave as series structures

connected to two unit parallel structures defined above, forming 5-out-of-6 system of

notes. Hence for the 5th level association of notes the structure function S(x)=1 may now

be redefined as state vectors with 6 elements as follows:

57
(i) (x1 x2 x3 x4 x8 x9) =>only (1,1,0,1,1,1) ={1,2,4 ,8 ,9 }=T vi x(5)

(ii) (x1 x2 x3 x5 x8 x12) =>only (1,1,0,1,1,1) = {1,2,5 ,8,12 }= T v viii(5)

(iii) (x1 x2 x6 x7 x8 x9) =>only (1,1,1,0,1,1) ={1,2 ,6,8,9}= T v vi(5)

(iv) (x1 x2 x3 x7 x8 x12 ) =>only (1,1,0,1,1,1) ={1,2,7,8,12}=T viii x(5

(v) (x1 x2 x3 x5 x8 x10) =>only (1,0,1,1,1,1) ={1,3,5,8,10}=T ii vii(5)

(vi) (x1 x3 x6 x7 x8 x10 ) =>only (1,1,1,0,1,1) = {1,3,6,8,10}= Ti iii(5)

(vii) (x1 x3 x6 x8 x11 x12) =>only (1,1,1,1,1,0) = {1,3,6,8,11}=T ii iv(5)

(viii) (x1 x4 x5 x6 x8 x11) => only(1,1,0 ,1,1,1) = {1,4,6,8,11}=T iii vi(5)

(ix) (x1 x5 x6 x7 x8 x12 ) =>only (1,1,1 ,0,1,1) ={1,5,6,8,12}=Ti v(5)

(x) (x1 x5 x6 x7 x8 x12 ) => only (1,1,0,1,1,1) = {1,5,7,8,12} = T vii ix(5)

(xi) (x1 x5 x8 x9 x10 x12 ) =>only (1,1,1,0,1,1) ={1,5,8,10,12}=Tiviii(5)

The diagrammatic representations of two of the above structures are illustrated below.

viz. (viii) and (vi).

58
Fig 2.3: Five unit structures

These five level associations viz. [(i) (x1 x2 x3 x4 x8 x9) ,(ii) (x1 x2 x3 x5 x8 x12) ,

(iii) (x1 x2 x6 x7 x8 x9) ,(iv) (x1 x2 x3 x7 x8 x12 ) ,(v) (x1 x2 x3 x5 x8 x10)

(vi)(x1 x3 x6 x7 x8 x10 ) ,(vii) (x1 x3 x6 x8 x11 x12) ,(viii) (x1 x4 x5 x6 x8 x11)

(ix) (x1 x5 x6 x7 x8 x12 ) ,(x) (x1 x5 x6 x7 x8 x12 ) (xi) (x1 x5 x8 x9 x10 x12 ) ]

now behave as series structures connected to two unit parallel structures defined above,

forming 6-out-of-7 system of notes. Hence for the 6th level association of notes the

structure function S(x)=1 may now be redefined as state vectors with 7 elements as

follows:

59
(i) (x1 x2 x4 x5 x7 x8 x12) => only (1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1) = {1,2,5,7,8,12} = T viii ix(6)

(ii) (x1 x2 x5 x8 x9 x10 x12) => only (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1) = {1,2,5 ,8,9,12} = T v ix(6)

(iii) (x1 x2 x7 x8 x9 x10 x12) => only (1,1,1 ,1,1,0 ,1) = {1,2,7,8,9,12} = T ix x(6)

(iv) (x1 x2 x3 x4 x6 x8 x11) => only(1,0,1,1,1,1,1) = {1,3,4,6,8,11} = T iii iv(6)

(v) (x1 x3 x4 x5 x6 x8 x10) => only (1,1,0,1,1,1,1) = {1,3,5,6,8,10} = Ti ii(6)

(vi) (x1 x3 x5 x8 x10 x11 x12) => only (1,1,1,1,1,0,1) = {1,3,5,8,10,12} = Ti vii(6)

(vii) (x1 x3 x6 x8 x10 x11 x12 ) => only (1,1,1,1,1,1,0) = {1,3,6,8,10,11} = T ii iii(6)

(viii) (x1 x4 x6 x8 x9 x10 x11) => only (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1) = {1,4,6,8,9,11} = T iv vi(6)

(ix) (x1 x5 x7 x8 x9 x10 x12 ) => only (1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1) = {1,5,7,8,10,12} = T vii viii(6)

Two of the above structures are shown below viz. (iv) and (v).

Fig 2.4: Six unit structures

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These six level associations viz.[ (i) (x1 x2 x4 x5 x7 x8 x12) , (ii) (x1 x2 x5 x8 x9 x10

x12) , (iii) (x1 x2 x7 x8 x9 x10 x12) , (iv) (x1 x2 x3 x4 x6 x8 x11)

(v) (x1 x3 x4 x5 x6 x8 x10) , (vi) (x1 x3 x5 x8 x10 x11 x12) ,

(vii) (x1 x3 x6 x8 x10 x11 x12 ) , (viii) (x1 x4 x6 x8 x9 x10 x11),

(ix) (x1 x5 x7 x8 x9 x10 x12 ) ]

now behave as series structures connected to two unit parallel structures defined above,

forming 6-out-of-7 system of notes.

Remark:

From above it can be observed that while preparing the 6 level associations, four two

unit parallel structures are used along with the notes 1 and 8. The remaining two unit

parallel structure would finally be included in the six level associations for construction

of a particular thaat.

Process of construction of thaat described in Section 2.6 incorporates the rules of

inclusion and exclusion of notes in a pair of thaats and this has been shown by

considering an example for constructing the Kalyan thaat.

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Table 2.4: Example showing construction of a thaat

Initial pair note note result pair of Last The

(1,8) included excluded thaats note thaat
identified included

5 4 1,5,8 T29(3)

10 9 1,5,8,10 T28(4

12 11 1,5,8, 10,12 T18(5)

3 2 1,3,5,8,10,12 T17(6)

7 1,3,5,7,8,10,12 7 Kalyan(7)

From above discussion it may be seen that all the ten thaats together can be defined as

1-out-of-10 –G system with

φ(x)=max αj(x) for j=1,2,....,10

where αj(x) is a series structure function of jth minimal path set. φ(x) is an arbitrary

system of parallel arrangement of ten series systems which are thaats. The following

proposition is a justification of Bhatkhande's ten thaat theory.

2.6.2: Proposition:

N structures each of type 1-out-of -k:G parallel structure can generate a minimum

number of Nk non identical series structures.

Proof:

Define xij to be jth unit of ith 1-out of -k:G parallel structure such that

62
 x ij = 1 if jth unit of ith structure is active

=0 otherwise .

for j=1,2,...k and i=1,2,..., N.

Let Bi (x) be a structure function with state vector x=(xi1 , x i2 , x i3 ,… ,.x ik ) such

that

Bi (x) = 1 if one and only one member of x is 1 and others are zero.

=0 otherwise.

i.e Bi (x) is the ith 1-out of -k:G parallel structure .

Hence we may define β1 as a row matrix with Nk elements consisting of 1 and 0 only

such that

β1 (x) = (B11 (x), B21 (x) ,…, BN1 (x))

where Bi1(x) contains one “1” and k-1 “0” for i=1,2,....,N in the first row of the ith 1-out

of -k:G parallel structure Bi.Thus Bi1(x) is a row matrix with k elements.Hence Bi1(x)

may assume any one of the k following forms.viz. 1:(1,0,0…,0), 2:(0,1,0…,0)

3:(0,0,1,0,…,0),…,k:(0,0,0…,k).Therefore the minimum number of non identical rows

obtained by inserting “1” once and only once in each Bi(x) is Nk. Thus we have a matrix

β(x) = (β1(x) ,β2(x),.........,βNk(x) )/

i.e. N structures each of type 1-out-of-k:G parallel structure can generate minimum

number of Nk non identical series structures.

Result: The consequence of the above proposition may be stated as that five two unit

parallel structures of notes can produce a minimum number of ten non-identical thaats.

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Since the notes 1 and 8 are fixed in all the thaats the mt h βm(x) may be rewritten as

βm(x)= ( Im , B1m(x) ,B2m(x), B3m(x) , I m , B4m(x) , B5m(x) ). For m=1,2,...........10

where Bim is a ith structure present in m th

thaat for i=1,2,3,4,5.Each row βm

contains 12 (2+10) elements.

…........................................(*)

Hence β(x)=(β1(x) , β2(x),… ,βNk(x) )/ is a matrix of order 10x12 giving a total

of 120 elements in total.

β(x)=(β1(x) ,β2(x),.........,β10(x) )/ may be seen as a 1-out-of-10:G parallel system

with βm(x)= ( Im B1m(x) , B2m(x) , B3m(x) , I m , B4m(x) , B5m(x) ).

β(x) may be presented in terms of minimal path set such that

β(x) = max( βm(x) ) with minimal path set

( Im B1m(x) , B2m(x) , B3m(x) , Im , B4m(x) , B5m(x) ).

That is βm(x) is a series structure function with minimal path set defined above. This

minimal path set consists of seven active members which ensure that thaat contains

seven notes each.

2.6.3: Uniqueness of ten thaats:

By general rule of inclusion and exclusion of notes in the ten thaats from five two unit

parallel systems it should have been r:R =g:G=m:M=d:D=n:N=5:5. But it is observed

g:G=4:6, m:M=6:4 and n:N=4:6. This happens because Bhatkhande selected those ten

linear scales that can be converted to circular scales with seven notes .i.e. scales

corresponding to famous ten ragas which include almost all the common ragas of North

Indian classical raga system. Out of the ten scales, Bilawal and Bhairav are unique in

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 the sense that Bilawal contains all the pure notes whereas Bhairav contains all the flat

notes except G and N. The rest of the remaining 8 scales are divided into two classes in

such a way that one set viz.{Kalyan,Marwa,Poorvi,Todi} contains M and the other set

viz. {Khamaj,Kafi,Asawari,Bhairavi} contains m. This justifies the ratio m:M=6:4 and

n:N=4:6 and also the uniqueness of the ten heptatonic scales. All the ten thaats

discussed above are structured with the help of binary numbers according to the

positions occupied by the twelve notes(S,r,R,g,G,m,M,P,d,D,n,N).These ten binary

numbers are then converted to their equivalent decimal numbers for the unique

identification of the ten thaats.

2.7 Presentation of thaats in terms of Binary numeral system (BNS):

The thaats may also be represented in terms of Binary numeral system as shown in the

figure below. The note combinations corresponding to each thaat are represented in bits

i.e. in a sequence of 0's and 1's .This binary sequence is then converted into its

corresponding decimal value.

For Example, The note combination for Bilawal thaat(1) is :S R G m P D N and as such

the binary sequence is given by 101011010101. Hence its decimal number is 2773. The

decimal numbers corresponding to all the thaats are obtained in a similar manner and

are shown below.

Table 2.5: Numerical representation of thaats in terms of decimal number.

Thaats i ii iii iv v vi vii viii Ix x

2773 2774 2902 2906 3418 3417 2741 3253 3257 3285

BNS

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From the above table it is observed that the decimal number corresponding to thaat

Bhairav(v) is maximum whereas that of Kalyan thaat(7) is minimum.

2.8 Diagrammatic presentation of Thaats with respect to notes:

Since intersections of thaats are non-null they are not mutually independent. The union

of all the ten thaats can be presented in a five petal floral design as shown below. The

individual thaats and their constituent notes are then shown separately as a sub diagram

of the five petal floral design

Fig 2.5: Diagrammatic representation of the ten thaats in terms of five petal floral

designs.

Five petal floral design

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 Kalyan

Bhairavi

67
Asawari

Marwa

68
Poorvi

Kaf

69
 Khamaj

Todi

70
 Bhairav

Bilawa

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Note: The floral designs presented above are helpful in visualizing the uniqueness of

each of the ten thaats.

2.9 Presentation of Thaats as directed graph:

Since thaats has only ascending order, each of the ten thaats can thus be treated as

connected acyclic digraphs or directed trees. The notes present in each of the thaats are

assumed to be nodes or vertices. Hence there are 10 trees, starting at a common node (S)

and meeting at a common node (P) as shown in the figure below.

Fig 2.6: Digraph D corresponding to the system of ten thaats

The above representation demonstrates the application of graph theory in visualizing the

pattern of occurrence of notes in the system of ten thaats. The above digraph D may be

described by the triplet {V(D), A (D), ψ(D)} where V(D) = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,

11, 12} is a non-empty set of nodes or vertices, A(D) = { e12, e13, e24, e25, e34, e35, e46,

e47, e56, e57, e68, e78, e89, e810, e9 11, e9 12, e10 11, e10 12} is a set of arcs which is disjoint

from V(D) and ψ(D) = {(1,2), (1,3), (2,4), (2,5), (3,4), (3,5), (4,6), (4,7), (5,6), (5,7),

(6,8), (7,8), (8,9), (8,10), (9,11), (9,12), (10,11), (10,12)} is the incidence function. The

digraph D seems to be complicated in nature. There are 6 arcs per directed tree giving a

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total of 6x10 = 60 arcs for the system of ten thaats.

Since it is difficult to identify each of the ten thaats from the above digraph, as well as

the connection between the notes in each thaat, we propose a simpler representation of

the above digraph in the figure below. The figure resembles the the birth chart of an

individual having twelve compartments, where each thaat is represented by a unique

colour.

Fig 2.7: An alternate representation of Digraph D

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Discussion:

All the ten thaats are based on twelve notes as such overlapping of notes is unavoidable.

Thus in most of the cases thaats look similar. However the ten thaats constructed out of

five parallel systems viz. (x2 x3 ) , (x 4 x5 ) , (x6 x7) , (x9 x10) and (x11 x12) and a series

system (x1 x8) with inclusion ratio (5:5), (4:6), (6:4), (5:5), (4:6) and (10:10)

respectively are unique in nature.

Therefore a thaat may be defined as a series structure of seven notes constructed out of

twelve ordered notes where notes form five ordered parallel systems viz. (x2 x3),

(x 4 x5), (x6 x7 ), (x9 x10) and (x11 x12) and a series system (x1 x8) within themselves

.with notes M and n (x6 x11 ) not appearing at the same time. This actually justifies the

construction of exactly ten thaats from original thirty-two thaats by Pandit Vishnu

Narayan Bhatkhande.

In this chapter three kinds of approaches have been adopted for representing the

unique features of the ten common thaats of North Indian classical music viz.

1) Numerical representation of thaats in terms of binary and decimal number.

2) Diagrammatic representation of the ten thaats in terms of five petal floral

designs.

3) Presentation of thaats as directed graphs.

The numerical representation of thaats in terms of binary and decimal numbers provide

a quantitative measure for identification of thaats.Again Shetty and Achary (2009), has

shown that some raga characteristics viz. Arohan-avarohan can also be similarly

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expressed in terms of binary and decimal number.This method can then be used for

identification of ragas as well as thaats.The various five petal floral designs shown in

Section 2.8 can serve as an important tool for non-musicians to visualise as well as to

understand the structure of the ten thaats.However the graph theoretic approach is a

much better tool to understand the theory of the ten thaats.Further graph theory has

been extensively applied in the in the subsequent chapters of the thesis for

understanding and analyzing raga grammar.

In the next chapter ragas have also been similarly defined in terms of structure function

of notes. Some non-parametric tests are then conducted for testing some musical

propositions concerning raga and its characteristics.

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