It's always struck me that the term 'Kauns' is used inconsistently, with various definitions offered depending on who you ask. So I decided to analyse all 65 ragas I could find with variants of 'Kauns/Kaunsi' in the title, including direct input from artists of various gharanas. Here's what I found...

—Full writeup with listening links: What does ‘Kauns’ mean? A brief survey of all known Kaunsi ragas

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"Perhaps the ragascape’s most famous suffix, the term ‘Kauns’ is nevertheless fraught with complications. Traditionally, the presence of ‘Kauns’ in a raga’s name simply indicated that it ‘drew from Malkauns’ – but today, the term also seems to encompass a broader set of meanings. Multiple overlapping definitions have been offered, but none quite seem to capture the full character of how ‘Kauns’ is used today.

For example, Chandrakantha states that it is “generally used to represent 5-note ragas”, and Ocean of Ragas points to common factors such as “a pentatonic scale [comprising] shuddha ma with komal or shuddha ga, dha, and ni”, adding that “some have 5 notes in aroha, and 6 or 7 in avroh…and some examples have tivra Ma”. Rajan Parrikar notes that “in most formulations, the Malkauns template serves as the starting point, but occasionally a Kauns prakar may instead be informed by its mannerisms” – while Surajit Bose offers the following summary: “Narrowly defined, ‘Kauns’ implies an aroha-avroh of ‘Ga-Ma-Dha-Ni‘, [although] each member of the family may take a different permutation of shuddha and komal…and Madhukauns dares to be different”.

All of these definitions are helpful, and none are misleading – but concise elaboration still seems elusive. Perhaps the term itself is now too diffuse to be usefully defined: the ‘Kauns zone’ is evolving rapidly, with dozens of fresh forms having been created over the past few generations, many of which appear to share little resemblance. Or perhaps the term still carries specific meaning – after all, artists choose their raga names carefully, and still consider the term to bring something vital.

If the meaning of a word is its use in the language, the only way to bring clarity is via direct study of how the term ‘Kauns’ is actually used in the modern ragascape. So I gathered every known raga with ‘Kauns, Kaunsi, Kosh, Kaushik’ in the title (see Etymology), along with anything I could find about the origins of their names and melodic combinations. Whatever this process may reveal, it’s a great excuse to listen to some rare and strange Kaunsis…

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• SUMMARY OF THE 'KAUNS ZONE' •

—Typically, the term still implies the vital presence of Malkauns – although a surprising number of recent creations come directly from its derivative Chandrakauns instead (SgmdNS), and a few take their suffix from Madhukauns (SgMPnS). By my reckoning, 42 of the 65 Kauns ragas can be classed as direct Malkauns offshoots, while 18 of the rest derive primarily from Chandrakauns – with a few more via Madhukauns.

—In practice, this means that the raganga can be summarised via four ‘core sequences’: Sgm (Malkauns-ang); SgM (Madhukauns-ang); dnS (Malkauns-ang); dNS (Chandrakauns-ang) – with all known Kaunsi ragas containing at least one of these sangatis except the outlying Amirkhani Kauns (which may not even have been designated as a ‘Kauns’ by its creator).

—Inversely, it also seems that virtually every raga which does draw significantly from Malkauns will include ‘Kauns/Kaushik’ somewhere in its title – indicating that artists still consider Malkauns to deserve name recognition when it appears in a mixed concoction.

—The principle that ‘Kauns ragas match the generic swaras Sa-Ga-Ma-Dha-Ni’ appears to be weakening, with less than half the ragas limiting themselves to this grouping (26/65)...Inversely, almost all the ‘Sa-Ga-Ma-Dha-Ni’ ragas from the Megalist do include ‘Kauns’ in their name, with the only notable exception being Hindol (considered to overlap with the historical Malkauns lineage, hence the Carnatic equivalent being known as ‘Hindolam’). Thus, we should flip the original statement round: i.e. it is more accurate to say that ‘Sa-Ga-Ma-Dha-Ni = Kauns’, rather than vice versa.

—Every single raga on the list includes some form of ma – and all but 5 feature shuddha ma (unsurprising given its status as Malkauns’ vadi). Aside from Madhukauns, the ‘tivra Ma only’ cases are all rare (Harikauns, Tivrakauns, Nirmalkauns, & Amirkhani Kauns). Similarly, if the Kauns element is present in poorvang, komal ga will be prominent: due to the presence of this swara in all three of Malkauns, Chandrakauns, and Madhukauns. However, plenty of Kauns ragas do not feature komal ga (14/65), including those which constrain their Kauns elements to the upper scale (e.g. Sarangkauns)...and those which draw their komal ga from a non-Kauns source (e.g. Jog’s GmgS in Jogkauns).

SUMMARY: While this analysis may have uncovered some interesting trends and patterns, are we really any closer to a concise, useful definition of ‘Kauns’? And if not, does this matter? In the end, all I can say with confidence is that the term still ultimately means ‘derived from the Malkauns lineage’ – although today, almost a third of known Kauns ragas are ‘second-order derivatives’, formed directly from Chandrakauns rather than Malkauns (with a few ‘third-order’ examples arising from Madhukauns: itself formed via a ma-murchana of Chandrakauns).

The real aim of this inquiry is to bring the full variety of the Kauns family to broader attention, and to shine a spotlight into the rare corners of a rapidly-expanding zone of raga. Browse the full list of 65+ Kaunsis here – and don’t hesitate to send me your reflections or any Kaunsis I’ve missed! I know there must be more out there...

—FULL WRITEUP WITH SUMMARIES OF ALL 65 KAUNSIS—