thaat : Hindusthani music

Thaat   :  
Thaat is acombination of seven swaras.



According to Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860-1936), one of the most influential musicologists in the field of North Indian classical music in the twentieth century, each one of the several traditional ragas is based on, or is a variation of, ten basic thaats, or musical scales or frameworks. The ten thaats are Bilawal, Kalyan, Khamaj, Bhairav, Poorvi, Marwa, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi and Todi;

It is worth noting that almost all the thaats mentioned above are also ragas; and yet a thaat is a very different musical entity from a raga, and in this difference may lie, crucially, a definition of what a raga is or is not. A thaat is a musical scale, conceived of the seven notes presented in their order of ascent (arohan).

There are total 10 thaats in Hindusthani music


Description of these thaats  : 

 Thaat : Bilawal

It is the most basic of all the ten thaats.All the swaras in the thaat are suddha. This is the morning raag. Thaat : Khambaj The next thaat is khambaj which can be obtained by replacing the suddha nishad of bilawal by komol nishad. Thaat : Kafi Kafi thaat make use of komal gandhar and komal nishad . It is late evening raag and said to convey the mode of spring. Thaat: Asavari Add komal dhaivat to kafi thaat and you get asavari thaat  . It is late morning raag. Thaat:Bhairavi  Bhairavi thaat make use of all the komal swaras. Nishad,dhaivat, gandhar, rishav Thaat : Bhairav This thaat make use of komal rishav and komal dhaivat. It is morning  raag. Thaat: Kalyan It consist of important group of evening raag characterised   by tivra ma. Thaat: Marwa This thaat is obtained by adding akomal rishav to kalyan thaat. Thaat : Poorvi This thaat adds a komal dhaivat to marwa thaat. This thaat raags usually featured komal rishav, suddha gandhar, suddha nishad, aiong with tivra ma. Thaat: Toori This thaat is king of all thaat.It is traditionally performed in the late night characterised by komal rishav, komal gandhar, komal dhaivat and tivra ma. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE   .