Alhaiya Bilawal

Alhaiya Bilawal is usually treated as the representative raga of the Bilawal thaat, the all-shuddha-note scale closest to the Western major scale. Unlike a plain major-scale run, though, Ma is dropped from the ascent entirely, only entering as the phrase turns to come back down — and the descent is where the raga actually turns vakra (zigzagging): it doubles back through Dha, a komal Ni, and Dha again before continuing, rather than falling straight through, alongside the shuddha Ni used elsewhere — an asymmetry in the same spirit as the Re/Ga behavior described in the Desh entry here, though built on a different pair of notes. Traditionally performed in the morning, Bilawal-family ragas have a bright, open character; some writers have proposed Alhaiya Bilawal as an influence on the melody of India's national anthem, though that attribution is disputed, partly because the anthem uses tivra Ma, a note that plays no role here.