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Thaat · one of Bhatkhande’s ten

बिलावलBilawal

Every swara shuddh: the scale the other nine thaats are measured from, and the first one a bansuri learns.

66 madhya
About these soundsMeend makes the harmonium and santoor sounds itself. They aren’t recordings of real instruments, so they sound close, but not quite the same. They are here to let you hear how the swaras go.The tanpura and tabla are recordings of real ones.
SRGMPDNबिलावल

Tap a swara to hear it

Its swaras
S R G M P D N
What sets it apart
All shuddha
How bright
0, the shuddh scale, the middle of the ladder
In the West
The Ionian mode: the major scale
In the South
Dheerashankarabharanam, the 29th melakarta; its raga Shankarabharanam

Bilawal is the thaat of every swara shuddh: Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni, nothing raised and nothing lowered. Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande took it as the shuddh scale of Hindustani music, the one from which the other nine are counted: each is Bilawal with some swaras made komal or Ma made tivra. It is named for raag Bilawal, a raag of the morning.

Its swaras

Aaroh and avaroh
SRGMPDNS
SNDPMGRS

With nothing altered, Bilawal sounds plain and open, settled and bright. Its two halves mirror each other: Sa Re Ga Ma and Pa Dha Ni Sa climb by the same steps. That symmetry is what makes it the easiest scale to hear and to play in tune, and the reason most alankars are first learned in it.

In threes, up and down
SRGRGMGMPMPDPDNDNS
SNDNDPDPMPMGMGRGRS

All ten alankars in Bilawal, to hear in your Sa →

How bright it is

With no tivra swara and no komal one, Bilawal stands at zero on the ladder: brighter than every thaat with a komal swara, and a step below Kalyan, whose Ma is raised. Marwa, with one swara lowered and one raised, stands beside it.

  1. +1Kalyan
  2. 0BilawalMarwa
  3. -1KhamajPurvi
  4. -2BhairavKafiTodi
  5. -3Asavari
  6. -4Bhairavi
Brighter at the top: a step up for tivra Ma, a step down for each komal swara.

On the circle of thaats

On the ring of thaats, each a single swara from the next, Bilawal sits between Kalyan and Khamaj. Raise its Ma to tivra and it becomes Kalyan; lower its Ni to komal and it becomes Khamaj.

MaNiGaDhaReMa, NiGaDhaReMaSRGMPDNबिलावलKalyan+1Bilawal0Khamaj-1Kafi-2Asavari-3Bhairavi-4Todi-2Purvi-1Marwa0Bhairav-2
Each thaat a swara from the next, the swara that changes on the line between them. Between Bhairavi and Todi two change; Bhairav stands outside, a swara from Purvi.

Its raags

Bilawal's own family is large: Alhaiya Bilawal, its chief raag, and Bilawal itself; Deshkar, a morning twin of Bhoopali; Shankara; Durga, five swaras with neither Ga nor Ni; Bihag, a raag of the night that touches tivra Ma on its way; and Hamsadhwani, which came to Hindustani music from Karnatic, five swaras bright as morning. Bilawal's raags are spread across the day, from its namesake in the morning to Bihag late at night.

In the West and the South

In Western music this is the major scale, the Ionian mode: C D E F G A B on the white keys of a piano.

In Karnatic music it is the 29th melakarta, Dheerashankarabharanam, and its raga Shankarabharanam.

Practise it

On the bansuri, Bilawal is the scale of the first lessons: with no komal or tivra swara to place between the others, it is where every swara is first made steady and in tune.

Each swara held, against the tanpura
S–––R–––G–––M–––
P–––D–––N–––S–––

Meend's alankars are in Bilawal: begin a riyaz of the alankars, ten paltas up the saptak and back, or of the ten thaats.

Questions

Which swaras are in Bilawal thaat?

All seven, shuddh: Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni.

Which raags are in Bilawal thaat?

Alhaiya Bilawal, Bihag, Deshkar, Shankara, Durga, Hamsadhwani and Pahadi, among many others.

Is Bilawal thaat the same as the major scale?

Its swaras are the same as the Western major scale, the Ionian mode, and Karnatic music's 29th melakarta, Dheerashankarabharanam.