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Short Takes: Multani Rajan P. Parrikar Rajan 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 He has written a series of articles on Classical Indian Music some of which have been archived on Sawf.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 in Panjim, Goa. Click on the picture to enlarge it

Namashkar.

The final episode of Short Takes concerns the eponymous Raga Multani, and with it, we impose closure on these set of notes on Ragas. Throughout our discussion, M=shuddha and m=teevra madhyam.

Raga Multani

Multani is among the ‘big’ rAgas, much favoured by the vocal ruminant for its lofty demeanour and capacious melodic quarters. Although its basic swaric material is drawn from the Todi thAT - S r g m P d N - it carries no hint or trace of the Todi Raganga. Multani has a highly evolved and independent swaroopa all its own.

< -- Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande

Let us examine its lakshaNAs. To recap the notation convention: a swara enclosed in brackets represents a kaN (grace) to the swara immediately following it. The single quote ' on a swara denotes its affiliation to the mandra saptaka, the double quote " denotes affiliation to the tAra saptaka.

S, N’ S g (S)r(N’)S
Both r and d are dropped in Arohi prayogas; the avaroha is sampoorNa. The peculiar ucchAraNa (intonation) of r mediated by a kaN (grace) of S is vital to Multani. Recall the vastly different behavior of Todi in this region, with its deergha r and intimate coupling with g. An inopportune nyAsa on r is the kiss of death for Multani. Further divergence between Todi and Multani in matters concerning g is suggested in the next tonal strip.

N’ S (m)g m P, m P (m)g, m g (S)r(N’)S
Characteristic of Multani is the Arohi ucchAraNa of g: it is tugged with m as in (m)g (m)g m P. Since g is approached from m, it has the effect of raising the shruti of g to a location above its nominal komal value. This in turn lifts the shruti of r as well. These microtonal nuances are later demonstrated beautifully by Pandit Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang." The teevra madhyam in Multani is very close to the pancham, in the latter's penumbra, as it were.

P, (m)g P, P (P)d(m)P, P (m)g, m g m g (S)r(N’)S
The treatment of d is congruent to that accorded r. The purNAvritti (repetition) of m g in avarohi prayogas is a point of note. As is the langhan of m, occasionally from g to P and more often through a meeND-laden avarohi P to g. The importance of a powerful pancham to Multani should be evident by now.

(m)g m P N, N, S", S" g" (S")r"(N)S"
The uttarAnga launch proceeds thus, with a deergha N. The sharp m P N curve presents a source of discomfort to many a Khayal singer especially in the faster passages - the tendency to instead detour through m d N must be checked.

S", N S" N d P, m P (m)g, m g m g (S)r(N’)S
This sentence completes the overall avarohi picture.

Obiter dictum: In his magnum opus, Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati, Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande remarks that Multani is considered the daytime counterpart of the nightly Raga Basant. He adds that the Rampur musicians of the Tansen tradition sing a g-laden version of the latter by the name Utari Basant.

Pandit Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" at the author's place in Goa (2001) -- >

Pandit Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" distills the essence of Raga Multani in this brilliant discourse recorded over the telephone a couple of weeks ago -

http://www.sawf.org/audio
/multani/jha_multanispeak.ram

Multani does not lend itself readily to the purveyors of ‘light’ music. Be that as it may, S.D. Burman springs a surprise in this gem from JEEVAN JYOTI (1953). Notice the superb harmonium work in the interludes. Mohammad Rafi and Geeta Dutt: laga gayeeN akhiyAN -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/geetarafi_jeevanjyoti.ram

Amir Khan sings a bhajan for composer Naushad in SHABAB (1954): dayA karo hey Girdhara Gopala -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/amirkhan_shabab.ram

< -- Dinanath Mangeshkar

The genre of Marathi Natyageeta has drawn liberally from the Classical reservoir. The song, prema seva sharaNa, originally tuned in Raga Bhimpalasi (see Abdul Karim Khan’s rendition in Bhimpalasi Inc ), was later imparted a twist by Dinanath Mangeshkar by casting it in Multani (for the most part) -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/dinanath_premaseva.ram

Vasantrao Deshpande considered himself a pupil of Master Dinanath. He offers his own interpretation of prema seva -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/vasantrao_premaseva.ram

The classical entrées have a very strong Kirana flavour. The Kirana camp has in place a virtual lock here, having installed its interpretation of Multani as the gold standard. Let us first warm up to Bhimsen Joshi's classic, a bold statement of the famous Khayal, gokul gAma ko chhorA. The druta bandish is a Kirana specialty, kangana munDariyA -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/bhimsen_multani.ram

Bhimsen Joshi -- >

Abdul Karim Khan's old recording of the druta -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/akk_multani.ram

The selfsame cheez reprised by Abdul Karim's daughter, Roshanara Begum -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani
/roshanara_multani.ram

< -- Abdul Wahid Khan

Acknowledged as a Kirana pioneer, Abdul Wahid Khan spent all of his performing career in the shadow of his trailblazing cousin Abdul Karim Khan. Abdul Wahid was among those early vocalists responsible for a paradigmatic shift to the leisurely vilambit laya in Khayal gAyaki. He was an exceptional teacher who trained a number of pupils among them, Hirabai Barodekar, Sureshbabu Mane, Begum Akhtar and Pran Nath. But perhaps it is Abdul Wahid's powerful influence on Amir Khan that supercedes his other impressive attainments. He died in 1949 in Lahore. Here he deals a Khayal in vilambit Jhoomra tAla -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/awk_multani.ram

Amir Khan's Multani is the musical equivalent of Mt. Everest, the loftiest of them all -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/amirkhan_multani.ram

Amir Khan -- >

An old composition by Omkarnath Thakur: surajana matwAlA -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/ot_multani.ram

Krishnarao Shankar Pandit -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/krsp_multani.ram

By the way, the Gwalior musicians also sing a hybrid known as Multani-Dhanashree.

Next we turn to the Atrauli-Jaipur contingent. Mogubai Kurdikar -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/mogubai_multani.ram

Kesarbai Kerkar wields an old composition: ina durajana logavA ko -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/kesarbai_multani.ram

And now, a representative of the Vishnupur Gharana in Satya Kinkar Bandopadhyaya (1899-1980), the former Dean of the music faculty at Rabindra Bharati University. His bandish is in Bengali: Shiva Shankara -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/skb_multani.ram

We have some arresting exhibits lined up at our instrumental kiosk. Z.M. Dagar's AlAp on the Rudra Veena is quite magnificent -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/zmdagar_multani.ram

Mushtaq Ali Khan on the sitar -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/mak_multani.ram

The master dispenser of melodic manna, Bismillah Khan -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/bismillah_multani.ram

< -- Bade Ghulam Ali Khan

If Amir Khan signifies the Mt. Everest, then Bade Ghulam Ali Khan's Multani is the Taj Mahal of melody. The traditional vilambit Khayal, kavana des gaye piyA-

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/bgak_multani.ram

Raga Madhuvanti/Ambika

This is a relatively recent rAga with shared credits for its development. The sitarist Vilayat Khan is said to have conceived it sometime in the early 1940s. Independently and around the same time, Wamanrao Padhye of Kolhapur composed a similar rAga and called it Ambika, after the Goddess.

Swarawise Madhuvanti is attained to by rendering both the rishab and dhaivat shuddha in the Multani contour. And although in the poorvAnga there is an AbhAsa of Multani, the similarity stops there. Madhuvanti is pleasing to the ear but it carries neither the gravitas and range nor the the intonational nuance and finesse of Multani. It has nevertheless cultivated a respectable following and is frequently featured in the late afternoon sessions. The Carnatic melakartA Raga Dharmavati resembles Madhuvanti.

The essence of Madhuvanti is now summarized.

N' S (m)g m g (S)R, S
The tug of m to the komal gandhAr is reminiscent of Multani, but the crucial element in Madhuvanti is the deergha avarohi R through a kaN of S.

(m)g m P, m P D P, (m)g m P N, N S" N, D m P
The pancham and nishAd are locations for nyAsa.

(m)g m P N, N S", N S" g" R" S", N S" D, D m P
Notice the deergha D and the potential for a tirobhAva due to Raga Patdeep from g" downward until the restoration of Madhuvanti through m.

Some musicians introduce the komal nishAd occasionally (for instance, via P n D P) but the primary burden is still shouldered by N.

Pandit Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" shares a few thoughts on Raga Madhuvanti -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/jha_madhuvantispeak.ram

Lata Mangeshkar recites from Chapter 15 of the Bhagavad Geeta -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/lata_bhagavadgeeta.ram

Lata Mangeshkar -- >

The kaNakadhArastotram of Adi Shankara in the sublime voice of M.S. Subbulakshmi: sampatkarAN sakalendriya -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/ms_adisankara.ram

MS again, in a bhajan composed by K. Venkataraman: guruvara deejo -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/ms_bhajan.ram

Hridaynath and Lata Mangeshkar join hands in this Meerabai bhajan: ko birahini ko dukha jANai ho -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/lata_meerabai.ram

Madan Mohan's beautiful composition in DIL KI RAHEIN (1973) again finds Lata: rasm-e-ulfat ko nibhAye -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/lata_dilkirahein.ram

Sudha Raghunathan sings a composition of the 15th C saint-composer Annamacharya: mangAmbudhi hanumanthA -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/sraghunathan_annamacharya.ram

An old 78 rpm reveals a very young and crisp Vilayat Khan -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/vk_madhuvanti.ram

< -- Jitendra Abhisheki

Jitendra Abhisheki finds use for both the nishAds in his Khayal -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/abhisheki_madhuvanti.ram

Bhimsen Joshi too flirts with the komal nishAd in this beautiful rendition available commercially. Although it is labeled as Hemavati, I have cast it in this section. The liner notes (by a British ethnopimp) assert that there is no pancham. Even a freshly born Indian baby can tell that the pancham, in fact, is heard right away on the opening syllable of the mukhDA and figures prominently thereafter.

Bhimsen's prayogas with the komal nishAd are intriguing: kAhe mAna kro -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/bhimsen_madhuvanti.ram

Nazakat Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/nazsal_madhuvanti.ram

A couple of compositions by Shubha Mudgal of which the first, bairana barkhA rutu Ayi, was composed by Kumar Gandharva -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/mudgal_madhuvanti.ram

An old 78 rpm cut of Ali Akbar Khan, the dark, dimunitive, (naked) Emperor of San Rafael -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/alu_madhuvanti.ram

The Rampur Sarangiyas, Hamid Hussain and Zahid Hussain, play a variation known as Tanseni Madhuvanti. The "Tanseni" presumably qualifies the special sangati with the two nishAds à la Miyan Malhar -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/hamidzahid_madhuvanti.ram

We wrap up the Madhuvanti segment with the ethereal meditations of Bismillah Khan who, in my emphatic opinion, is the greatest Hindustani instrumentalist of our times -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/bismillah_madhuvanti.ram

Bismillah Khan -- >

Raga Hemavati

Hemavati is the 58th Carnatic melakartA: S R g m P D n.
The rAga employing this scale goes by the same name and is a recent adaptation into Hindustani music.

Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/ahjk_hemavati.ram

Raga Anjani Kalyan

Pandit Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" has named his conception after Shri Hanuman. The basic idea involves rendering the Arohana of Madhuvanti sampoorNa by taking in both R and D. The Arohi contour thus assumes the form S R g m P D N and permits the advance of Kalyan-like clusters (whence the Kalyan suffix in the name).

Jha-sahab's delicious composition sings the glories of Hanuman:

hanana Hanuman mAna ke
dalana dAnava ke jana ke pAlaka Lanka ke dAhaka beera bANke
Rama ke pAyaka kapinha ke nAyaka
'Ramrang' shamana santApa tApa namata pada jAke

http://www.sawf.org/audio/multani/jha_anjanikalyan.ram

	< -- Pandit Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" at the Mangeshi temple in Goa (1999)
Acknowledgements My deepest thanks go to the usual cast of accomplices: Romesh Aeri, Ashok Ambardar, Sir Vish Krishnan, V.N. Muthukumar, Ajay Nerurkar and Dr. Guri Singh. Anita Thakur, as everyone knows by now, has been my partner-in-crime during the past three years of putting together these set of notes.

Epilogue

For the past three years I have been writing, and SAWF has been archiving, my notes on Ragas. The time has now come for me to call it a day. As can be gathered from the desultory arrangement of the topics, this set of articles was not planned, there was no grand design to the undertaking. What began as an informal jaunt with a posting or two on the Usenet newsgroup rec.music.indian.classical (RMIC), on the urging of a couple of friends, developed a life and momentum of its own. If I had had my way, I would have stopped after the first 2 or 3 episodes and returned to my default state of fainéant leisure. But at the time I had not reckoned with or appreciated the superior powers of persuasion - and coercion - of the charming girls at SAWF.

I like to view these ruminations in the spirit of entries made in a personal diary during the course of an unfinished journey through the universe of Raga. And much like a travelogue, they include descriptions and opinions of the sights, sounds and objects encountered, records of emotional experiences, and recollections of those moments of frisson that cap the occasional instance of insight or surprise. I count it as my singular fortune to have had privileged access to the ride perched on the shoulders of vidwans of the calibre of Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande and Pandit Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang." I lay no claim to having accomplished anything original and fain cede ground on that score to the many 'original' worthies who walk this earth and to whom Dr. Johnson has paid a handsome tribute: Your manuscript is both original and good. But the part which is original is not good and the part which is good is not original.

Raga - and the Ananda it brings - is best experienced firsthand, by renewing and recreating it in the hallways of your own mind, not vicariously or through the written word. I am anxious that a Raga not be viewed as merely an ensemble of rules with characteristic Arohi and avarohi phrases, vAdi-samvAdi and chalans. A nyAsa swara here and a skipped swara there are important and necessary details while speaking about Raga, true. But where do these considerations come from? Are they merely whims ossified by convention? Or is there a deeper basis? My hope is that I have successfully suggested some of the answers. That, at its foundations, Indian music is governed by what I refer to as The Laws of Melodic Ethics (the Indian term is Raga Dharma). Pandit Bhatkhande's monumental achievement lay in seeing and abstracting out the nature of these 'laws' from the thicket of melodic observations. What seems like 'rules' to the innocent eye are, upon contemplation, revealed to be 'truths' to the sAdhaka. Pandit Einstein could well have been talking about Indian music when he wrote:

It is the privilege of man's moral genius, impersonated by inspired individuals, to advance ethical axioms which are so comprehensive and so well founded that men will accept them as grounded in the vast mass of their individual emotional experiences. Ethical axioms are founded and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience. (vide Out of My Later Years.)

My other motivation at keeping up with this series has a less noble ring to it. By becoming engineers and doctors, India's best minds today have ceded the business of explicating India's heritage to others. These cultural outsiders - overwhelmingly Westerners - are mostly of third-rate intellectual quality (the smartest Americans are not studying India, they are either at Enron or WorldCom). Ours is perhaps the only major civilization whose primary interpretations in English are written by outsiders and lapped up by our urban, English-educated elite as canonical. It is my unshakable conviction that India's primary interpretations must come from those who have been brought up in and who have lived and practiced that tradition. Seeing ourselves through the Westerner's lens won't do any good (as a minor sidelight, consider the absurd label "South Asian" in SAWF, an identity foisted on us by the US State Department and accepted without demur).

A good number of Western academics ensconced in prestigious universities, and who are purportedly "friends" of India and Indian tradition, have over the years revealed, in addition to mediocre scholarship, their unholy, selfish motives, and their racism, the latter cleverly disguised with suitable escape hatches. In this context, my views on the ethnopimps (they call themselves "ethnomusicologists") do not bear repetition. Those Indians in the know seldom speak out publicly, thwarted by either the sheer ugliness of the issues involved or by the fear of giving offense. I wrote these features as a way of saying to these Western vultures that we will henceforth not sit by silently while you prey on, misrepresent, mischaracterize and abuse our tradition. The notice has been served: we will no longer be your "native informants" and your lab rats to be exploited en route to your career and tenure. Perhaps we are already beginning to see a faint shimmering of an Indian Renaissance. Rajiv Malhotra's sterling work at The Infinity Foundation merits mention in this connection.

That said, I must emphasize that the best in India's heritage belongs not just to Indians but to the whole human family. No words have resonated more deeply with me than these transcendental utterings of Rabindranath Thakur:

Whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin. Let me feel with unalloyed gladness that all the great glories of man are mine.

On that note, goodbye.

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