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Raga Din-ki-Pooriya

This rAga and Lalit are perhaps the only two major rAgas of the Poorvi thAT to dispense with the pancham. In Lalit the shuddha madhyam provides a peg to hang the melodic hat on whereas in Din-ki-Pooriya there is no such convenience. The swara contour is congruent with Pooriya but with the dhaivat attenuated to the komal shade. The effect is striking and lends a haunting drift. The first clip features an impromptu demonstration by Jitendra Abhisheki recorded at the Kala Academy in Goa. He punctuates the proceedings with pertinent remarks in Konkani and Marathi, in turn expanding on the text of the bandish and the various devices employed in AlApchAri. It makes for an engrossing session. The audio quality is sub-optimal but it ought not to detract (unless you are a Dolby weenie in which case there is a commercial recording available). Jitendra Abhisheki -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/abhisheki_dinkipooriya.ram

Mr. Jasraj's pedestrian effort fails to realize the potential latent in the alloted swaraspace -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/banditji_dinkipooriya.ram

Raga Reva

The pentatonic Reva - S r G P d - is the evening 'jawAb' to Raga Bibhas of the Bhairav thAT. Pandit Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" explains the relevant bheda and sings a traditional Sadra: guna ke grAhaka Akbar Shah -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/jha_reva.ram

Raga Bibhas (Poorvi thAT)

Recall the lakshaNAs of Bibhas of the Marwa thAT. In this Poorvi-thAT variant (with the teevra madhyam included), the accent is on the komal dhaivat and the rishab. The Poorvi affiliation is precipitated through clusters such as P m d, P. The composition chosen by Roshanara Begum is identical to Kesarbai's in the Marwa-thAT Bibhas: morA re -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/roshanara_bibhas.ram

Raga Poorba (Poorvi thAT)

This uncommon rAga, preferred by the Atrauli-Jaipur musicians, is at heart Raga Poorvi with bells and whistles. A couple of artifacts are grafted on the Poorvi chassis, to wit:

S M, M G P and m, m P, P d, d N d P

The regulation Atrauli-Jaipur bandish, mAna ghero, will be going around in the next four clips.

Shruti Sadolikar -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/shruti_poorba.ram

Mallikarjun Mansur -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/mansur_poorba.ram

Gajananrao Joshi -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/gjoshi_poorba.ram

< -- C.R. Vyas

This excerpt of the recently deceased C.R. Vyas is from a tête-à-tête with Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" held in the mid 1990s in Bombay. In the latter half of the clip, Vyas sings another composition credited to his guru Jagannathbuwa Purohit ('Gunidas'). The recording of the entire session is deposited in the Appendix at the end of this article -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/crvyas_poorba.ram

Raga Triveni

With the madhyam is varjya the swara set reduces to S r G P d N. Triveni, known variously as Tirvan and Tirban, is a Shree-anga rAga with attendant emphasis on the rishab and special coupling of r and P. This Shree-like character is evident in the traditional Sadra by K.G. Ginde: Kalindi Saraswati -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/ginde_triveni.ram

The same composition is now ambushed by Banditji and his hordes -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/banditji_triveni.ram

Raga Tankeshree (ShreeTanki)

Omkarnath Thakur -- >

This Shree-anga rAga is closely allied to Triveni. Tankeshree is pancham-oriented and takes in the teevra madhyam in alpa pramANa (small measure). Omkarnath Thakur's classic: mAlana lA'i -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/ot_tankeshree.ram

Raga Malavi (Poorvi thAT)

No consensus prevails on the swaroopa of this rAga. In K.G. Ginde's presentation, the nishAd is rendered alpa in ArohAtmaka and the dhaivat in avarohAtmaka movements. Watch out for the G-P, P-G and N-P type of sangatis. Ginde sketches a composition of his guru, S.N. Ratanjankar: namo namo namo Narayana -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/ginde_malavi.ram

The version advanced by Nivruttibuwa Sarnaik takes Pooriya Dhanashree for its base. The shuddha madhyam is introduced strikingly in a special prayoga -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/sarnaik_malavi.ram

Raga Jaitashree

As the name suggests, the rAga is an amalgam of Jait and Shree. The Jait thread, made up of the clusters S G, G P and P-S"-P, is knitted on the Shree fabric. Kishori Amonkar illustrates -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/kishori_jaitashree.ram

Ratanjankar's Jaitashree adopts a somewhat different posture. The composition is Bhatkhande's (his mudrA "Hararang" appears in the antarA): mhANe akeli DAra gayo -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/snr_jaitashree.ram

The Jait component is even more subtle in this rendition of Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan. The gat is in madhya laya Ada Chautala -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/ahjk_jaitashree.ram

Raga Dhavalshree

No consensus prevails on the rAga swaroopa. Kishori's version extends Jaitashree by creatively introducing a shuddha dhaivat. Be on the qui vive for the first instance of this stunning D at 0:15: je more saiyyAN re -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/kishori_dhavalashree.ram

< -- Mallikarjun Mansur

Mansur's Dhavalshree is another kettle of fish. The S-G-P sangati, a Shree-like r N d P meeND and chhAyAs of Pooriya Dhanashree are evident.

Mallikarjun Mansur -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/mansur_dhavalashree.ram

Raga Hamsanarayani

The rAga drops the dhaivat. The development is centred around the pancham. A sample chalan is:

G m P, P G m G r S, S P, S S" r" S", N P, m G, m G r S

Bismillah Khan with his grandson -- >

Bismillah Khan -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/bismillah_hamsanarayani.ram

Raga Baradi (Poorvi thAT)

We have encountered varieties of this rAga (called variously as Barari, Varari and Varati) based in the Marwa thAT. The Poorvi-thAT Baradi is very uncommon. Mansur's flavour comes about through a chalan bheda on Pooriya Dhanashree. The reader is encouraged to reflect on the nature of this bheda.

Mallikarjun Mansur: kaise karuN Aa'ooN re -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/mansur_baradi.ram

Raga Deepak (Poorvi thAT)

Much mythos is attached to this rAga through its association with Tansen. We have seen the Khamaj-thAT Deepak elsewhere (See In the Khamaj Orchard). Bhatkhande writes: "...Most musicians will not sing this rAga. Even if they venture to sing the purported lakshaNAs of this rAga they will hesitate to associate it with the name 'Deepak' out of fear that they will not be believed..." This aptly summarizes Deepak's station, today all but dead. It is, of course, very likely that many of its features have been absorbed and find expression in other rAgas. We have below three clips of the Poorvi-thAT Deepak. They could well have been branded with three different names.

< -- Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang"

Jha-sahab outlines the chalan of his version and then presents an old Sadra -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/jha_deepak.ram

Bundu Khan uses both the madhyams in his Dhrupad in Chautala. There's even a brief AvirbhAva of Bhairav -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/bundukhan_deepak.ram

Shujaat's Khan's version shows influences of Shree. There is a pungent use of the shuddha madhyam. His daddy Vilayat perhaps got this "correct," "authentic," "true" and "original" Deepak thanks to his seven-generations pedigree that traces it roots to well before the Big Bang. Shujaat's crooning adds a soothing touch -

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/shujaat_deepak.ram

This concludes our tour of the Poorvi Province. For other rAgas of this thAT such as Shree, Lalit and Gouri see Raga Shree: Close Encounters and On Raga Lalita-gouri.

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Romesh Aeri, Ashok Ambardar, Ajay Nerurkar, Guri Singh and Sir Vish Krishnan. Special thanks to Chetan Vinchhi and Sanjay Havanur. And as always, much credit and gratitude to the tireless Anita Thakur.

Appendix

An impromptu tête-à-tête between Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" and C.R. Vyas took place in the mid-1990s at the house of Satyasheel Deshpande in Bombay. Jha-sahab and C.R. Vyas formed a mutual admiration society. Ramrang considered C.R. Vyas to be the "Khalifa of Mumbai." For his part, C.R. Vyas would think nothing of telephoning Jha-sahab in Allahabad to clarify a finer point or two in the enunciation of a bandish. This clip is a marvelous document of a meeting between two unusually gifted musical minds. C.R. Vyas had utmost regard for Jha-sahab's deep understanding and knowledge of music. At one point in the session, in an uncommon display of honesty for a Hindustani musician of stature, Vyas confesses to Satyasheel (in Marathi) that some aspects of his training were a case of "the blind leading the blind." The allusion is to the attitudes of some old gurus who brooked no questions from disciples, treating the subject of music as revealed wisdom beyond the pale of analytical inquiry. Both Jha-sahab and CR engage in animated shoptalk and music in this engaging session:

http://www.sawf.org/audio/poorvi/jha_crvyas.ram

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