Monday, March 5 2001
On Raga Lalita-Gouri
By- Rajan P. ParrikarRajan P. Parrikar is
a recognized expert on Indian Classical music and shares his knowledge freely
with
those interested in the subject.
He has written a series of articles on
Classical Indian Music some of which have been archived on Sawf. Click here to read Rajan's earlier
articles. |
Rajan P.
Parrikar with 'Lalita' and 'Gouri' (Goa, 2000)
|
Namashkar.
Raga Lalita-Gouri is a union of the eponymous Ragas Lalit and Gouri, named
after the manifestations of the Divine Mother or Shakti. In the first two
sections below,
the constituent
rAgas are investigated in detail sufficient enough to illuminate the
essentials. We will attain to the denouement, Lalita-Gouri, in the third and
final segment.
Raga Lalit
A prAchina rAga, Lalit is among the most influential members of the
Hindustani community, for in it is embedded the seminal idea of the two
madhyams, placed cheek
by jowl, in intimate melodic communion. The quintessence of Lalit and its
associated Raganga - LalitAnga - is the interaction and coupling of the two
madhyams. Subject to
the type of dhaivat employed, Lalit is placed in either the Marwa thAT - if
shuddha D - or in the Poorvi thAT - if komal
d; Marwa and Poorvi thATs are, respectively, the
Gamanashrama and Kamavardhini melakartAs of the Carnatic paddhati. The shuddha
dhaivat
Lalit held sway in earlier times; in fact, Bhatkhande treats it as the
canonical Lalit. The au courant Lalit employs the komal dhaivat and will be
the focus of our discussion
here.
Throughout this commentary, M=shuddha
madhyam, m=teevra madhyam.
The Poorvi thAT comprises the swara-set: S r G m P d
N. Lalit drops the pancham altogether from the Poorvi set and instead
recruits
and instals the shuddha madhyam as its most powerful swara. The essence of
lalitAnga is apprehended in the following passage:
N' r G M, G MmM, G, m G r S
Notice the langhan (skipping) of the shaDaj en route to the shuddha madhyam.
The M thus approached is a location for nyAsa
and it
establishes the rAga's melodic 'centre'. The second madhyam-laden cluster
above expresses the core of LalitAnga: the two madhyams are uttered
successively and 'talk' to
each other. There will be occasion in almost all the clips to eavesdrop on
this 'conversation.' The shuddha madhyam, in a nyAsa bahutva role, dominates
the proceedings in
both the Arohi and avarohi movements. In the interest of brevity, we shall
focus on the key ideas; the subsidiary details may be inferred from the adduced
recordings. A
sample chalan of Lalit is formulated thus:
N' r G M, mM G, m d, mdNS", N r" N d m d mM, m G r S
It should be now obvious to even women and children that Lalit is a complex
rAga with a highly vakra build. A grAha bhedam (murchhanA) on the shuddha
madhyam
leads to an AvirbhAva of the Todi scale. The M-m-M
idea of LalitAnga is exploited in several other melodies (eg. Prabhat
Bhairav,
Bhankar and so on) although it must be emphasized that the mere presense of
consecutive madhyams per se does not establish LalitAnga: the key lies in the
intonation and
punctuation (ucchAraNa, as it is called). For instance, rAgas such as Nand
and Kedar deploy consecutive madhyams on occasion but do not exhibit LalitAnga.
For this article we have marshalled a suite of outstanding audio samples,
several of them hard to come by. Two film-based numbers inaugurate the
proceedings. In
both these clips Lata Mangeshkar is paired first with Mohammad Rafi and then
with Manna Dey. Her felicity with LalitAnga leaves the two men looking like
hapless
rookies at a high school musical gathering. First the popular favourite from
LEADER, tuned magnificently by Naushad: ek shahenshAh ne banwA ke haseeN Taj
Mahal
-
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/ekshahenshah.ram
From CHACHA ZINDABAD, music by Madan Mohan: preetama darasa dikhAvo
-
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/preetama.ram
|
|
The touchstone of Lalit in the classical domain, the yardstick by which
every other Lalit is measured (and mostly discarded), is this recording of Amir
Khan, set in vilambit jhoomrA: kahAN jAge rAta -
|
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/amirkhan_lalit.ram
Another Lalit of great merit comes from Kesarbai Kerkar: ghuTana lAge
raina -
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/kesarbai_lalit.ram
A playful 'Aftab-e-Mausiqui' Faiyyaz Khan: taRapata hooN jaise jal bina
meena -
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/faiyyaz_lalit.ram
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan erupts in a cannonade of tAnas in hum sanga tum
sanga:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/bgak_lalit.ram
The shuddha dhaivat Lalit of yore is represented by Ulhas Kashalkar. There
are occasional flashes of Hindol and Marwa but the main story is once again the
presence
of LalitAnga:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/kashalkar_lalit.ram
Raga Gouri
Gouri, too, is a prAchina rAga. Or, to be more precise, it is a group of
rAgas. Furthermore, it would be appropriate to regard Gouri as a sub-melody,
more in the line
of a gesture than a full blown Raganga. And so it is that there are Gouris of
the Bhairav, Poorvi and Marwa thATs with additional qualifiers such as the
Shree-anga Gouri,
Bhairav-anga Gouri, Poorvi-anga Gouri and so on. These are not considered
'big' rAgas.
Most of the Gouris in vogue fall to either the Bhairav or the Poorvi thAT.
The canonical Gouri signature obtains from the peculiar behaviour on and around
the shuddha
nishAd of the mandra saptak. To wit:
S, N' N' S, r G, r S r N', N' d' N', N' S
This lingering on the mandra nishAd N' and
its approach via r and d'
give rise to a distinct sensation. An additional artifact is the
stretching of the gandhAr as indicated above. A soupcon of Shree-anga will
also be noticed in many
Gouris. That is all there is to this groups of rAgas under the "Gouri" rubric.
The rest of the swaraspace past the gandhAr is populated subject to your
choice of thAT, anga
and fancy. Every legal Indian citizen, therefore, is entitled to his or her
personal Gouri. The curious are referred to Bhatkhande's rather detailed
discourse on the Gouris in
his classic work Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati.
Clipship ahoy! Watch out for the mandra nishAd-based ritual, or if you
will, the 'Gouritual.' The first Gouri is of the Bhairav thAT. There is no
BhairavAnga here but
supporting structure is supplied by the scale-congruent Kalingada. Presenting
His Horniness, Mr. Jasraj:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/banditji_gouri.ram
Gouri of the Poorvi thAT is rendered by C.R. Vyas via a composition of
Jagannathbuwa Purohit "Gunidas": khabariya le mori -
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/crvyas_gouri.ram
Bhimsen Joshi figures in this Marwa-thAT Gouri:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/bhimsen_gouri.ram
Another Marwa-thAT Gouri by Abdul Karim Khan:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/akk_gouri.ram
Indian tradition would be nothing if not for the exceptions and escape
clauses. We have none of the "my Book is the only true Book" and "my way is
the only way"
decrees prevalent in places west of the Arabian Sea. The final Gouri exhibit is
a beautiful sample of Haveli Sangeet rendered by Amar Lal of the Kishangarh
school. It is a
different kind of Gouri, outside the canon, and is grounded in the Bhairav
thAT, with a mild BhairavAnga, with both the komal nishAd and shuddha rishab
thrown in for
good effect. The lyrics are attributed to Parmanand Swami (1493-1583):
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/amarlal_gouri.ram
Recordings of other Gouri varieties such as Ram Gouri, Kapar Gouri and so on
have been bypassed for now.
Equipped with the fundamentals of Lalit and Gouri we are in a position to
inquire if the two can be conjoined in lawful wedlock.
Raga Lalita-Gouri
To recapitulate: the LalitAnga signature is fashioned from the close
coupling of the two madhyams, the Gouri behaviour informed by appropriate
clusters on and in the
vicinity of the mandra nishAd. It stands to reason that the definitive
characteristics of any purposeful union of these two rAgas must carry their
respective genetic material.
To what extent the stipulations are actually met in practice will be left as an
exercise to the reader, as also recognition of supporting filler material
(Poorvi, Pooriya
Dhanashree, Kalingada, Shree etc).
The first item on the Lalita-Gouri platter is an exceptional experience.
Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" holds forth for 20 minutes in this recording made last
month
(February 2001) in Delhi especially for this Sawf feature. The development
proceeds from 'first principles' and leads to the formulation of Lalita-Gouri,
culminating in his
own exquisite composition. The proceedings tellingly reveal why he is a
peerless teacher and a vidwAn and musician of the highest class. He is
supported on the
harmonium by the veteran maestro from Goa, Tulshidas Borkar, and on the tabla
by Mithilesh Kumar Jha. Ramrang, with not a wasted word, in a superb expose:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/jha_lalitagouri.ram
|
Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" in Delhi (Feb 2001)
Jha-sahab's remarks on the bandish, its sAhityic and swara features are
enshrined in the extended discussion above. From that mega-clip, we have now
isolated the
rendition of his composition in Lalita-Gouri. Notice how the rAga lakshaNAs
are elucidated in the first line itself: basana lalita sohe Gouri Amba ke -
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/jha_lalitagouri_bandish.ram
Vinayakrao Patwardhan's version of Lalita-Gouri is the only one in this
collection that subscribes to the Bhairav-thAT Gouri. All the rest are
Poorvi-thAT votaries. The
composition is credited to Miyan Shouri, the originator of Tappa: yAra
katAra mAnu prema di -
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/vpatwardhan_lalitagouri.ram
Umrao Khan (son of sArangi-nawAz Bundu Khan of Delhi) sings a splendid
bandish of "Manrang." Although it has been labelled only "Gouri" it is seen to
exhibit
LalitAnga and hence is included in this Lalita-Gouri section:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/umraokhan_lalitagouri.ram
Lalita-Gouri is dear to the Agra clan. Vilayat Hussain Khan "Pranpiya"
sings a marvellous composition of "Daras Piya" (Mehboob Khan, Faiyyaz Khan's
father-in-law).
The rAga characteristics of both Gouri and Lalit are captured in the first line
itself: morA mana lAgA -
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/vhk_lalitagouri.ram
The next clip is offered for its vintage value despite its dubious audio
quality. Altaf Hussain Khan of Khurja:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/altafhussain_lalitagouri.ram
Vakra rAgas such as these are primarily the playground for the vocalist.
Occasionally an instrumentalist surpasses himself and compels us to take
notice. This recording
of Ali Akbar Khan is a masterly display with its meeNDs, the shruti-pradhAna
nishAd and so on. Although it is tempting to discuss the recording in more
detail, Kabir's
immortal line - mana masta huwA taba kyoN bole? - reins in my impulse:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/alumeister_lalitagouri.ram
Bhimsen Joshi generates a peculiar 'swing' around the mandra nishAd in his
khelana Aye Radha -
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/bhimsen_lalitagouri.ram
|
The composition, preetama saiyyAN darasa dikhAjA, is a staple of the
Atrauli-Jaipur heavyweights. It is also treated with relish by the Agra folks
as witness this clip of Pranpiya's son, Younus Hussain Khan:
|
|
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/yhk_lalitagouri.ram
Kesarbai's Lalita-Gouri transports us into those stratospheric regions we
have come to associate with her name. There is a full-length live recording
available. This clip
features the other shorter recording - preetama saiyyAN:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/kesarbai_lalitagouri.ram
Gajananrao Joshi wields the same bandish but scarcely does justice to
Gouri's mandra nishAd:
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/gjoshi_lalitagouri.ram
In the concluding item, Mallikarjun Mansur sings preetam saiyyAN in
vilambit teentAl. The clip sparkles despite Rajsekhar's contaminating
presence. The
LalitAnga is presented upfront, the value accorded the mandra nishAd and the
madhya gandhAr is in line with standard Gouritual. Only five minutes are
offered here and so
the overall grandeur is left to the reader's imagination. The tAns are
conceived with an eye on anchoring the action around the nishAd and gandhAr.
There can be no
straight up and down sapAT tAnas in Lalita-Gouri; they zigzag and keep bouncing
off the nishAd as in PNNdNNmdNN or from the
gandhAr and pancham. It is a great pleasure to hear Mallikarjun serve
breathtaking swara-combinations, no doubt burnt into his memory through decades
of relentless
tAleem.
http://www.sawf.org/audio/lalitagouri/mansur_lalitagouri.ram
Acknowledgement:
Many thanks to Romesh Aeri, Ashok Ambardar, Ajay Nerurkar and Guri Singh.
Anita Thakur, the soul of SAWF, is the reason I have kept at this.
Glossary
The contents of the article are Copyright © of the author and may not be
reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the author.
 View
and Post comment on this
article
|
