Thaat

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A thaat is a musical mode in Hindustani music which always has seven notes (excluding the repeated tonic) and is mainly used for the classification of ragas in a system created by Pt. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande. A thaat is a specific set of swara. Each thaat contains a different combination of altered (vikrt) and natural (shuddha) notes. The flatting or sharping of pitches always occurs with reference to the interval pattern in Bilawal thaat. It is important to note that, as in the Western church modes, each thaat is a series of intervals, not a series of notes. That is, one can arbitrarily designate any pitch as Sa (the tonic) and build the series from there.

There are ten generally accepted thaats:

1. Bilawal (=Ionian mode): S R G m P D N S'
2. Khammaj (=Mixolydian mode): S R G m P D n S'
3. Kafi (=Dorian mode): S R g m P D n S'
4. Asawari (=Aeolian mode): S R g m P d n S'
5. Bhairavi (=Phrygian mode): S r g m P d n S'
6. Bhairav: S r G m P d N S'
7. Kalyan (=Lydian mode): S R G M P D N S'
8. Marwa: S r G M P D N S'
9. Purvi: S r G M P d N S'
10. Todi: S r g M P d N S'