Castes in ragas

Listen to the raga description. Some raga belongs to a certain caste. The word "caste" signifies the number of vowels used in the raga. Castes in ragas are determined by the number of vowels used in their ascent and descent.

The music composed by Damodar Pandit says in the mirror

Odava: Panchabhi: Prokt: Swarai: Shadbhishcha Shadava.
Complete Saptabhirjneya and Ragastridha Mat:

That is, the ragas in which 5 vowels are used are called "Odav caste", the ragas in which 6 vowels are used are called "Shadav caste" and the ragas in which 7 vowels are used are called "complete caste". So we can see that there are three main castes of ragas based on number-

Odav caste = 5 tone ragas
Shadava caste = 6 tone raga
Complete caste = 7 tone ragas

But most of the ragas do not use the same number of vowels in ascending and descending, just as some ragas use 6 vowels in ascending and 7 vowels in descending, some use 5 in ascending and 6 or 7 vowels in descending. Are. Now the ragas which have 5 vowels in ascending and 6 vowels in descending are kept under Audav-Shadavajati, similarly the ragas which have 5 vowels in ascending and 7 vowels in descending are considered to be of Audav-Sampurnajati. Seeing that the ragas have a total of 3 * 3 = 9 castes from the main 3 castes, their names are as follows

Audav-Audav- which has 5 vowels in ascent and 5 vowels in descent.

Audav-shadav- whose 5 vowels are used in ascent and 6 vowels in descent.

Audav-sampurna- in which 5 vowels are used in ascending and 7 in descending.

Shadav-Shadav- in which 6 vowels are used in ascending and 6 in descending.

Shadav-Audav - which has 6 vowels in ascending and 5 vowels in descending.

Shadav-sampurna- in which 6 vowels are used in ascending and 7 in descending.

Absolute-Absolute - in which 7 vowels are used in ascending and 7 in descending.

Sampurna-Shadav- in which 7 vowels are used in ascending and 6 in descending.

Sampurna-Audav- which has 7 vowels in ascent and 5 vowels in descent.