On Raga Arun Malhar
Rajan P. Parrikar
uncommon Raga Arun Malhar (aruN malhAr). Throughout these
ruminations, M = shuddha madhyam.
"Malhar" is both the name of a rAga (the unqualified Malhar
being understood to be MiyAN ki Malhar) and the name of a family of
rAgas. The kernel of the Malhar-anga obtains from one or both
of the following movements:
(a) n D N S; sometimes a abridged to a chromatic slide, viz., n N S
and
(b) M R, (M)R (M)R P
uuu--->meenD
The latitude offered to the imagination by coupling of the
two-nishAds in the manner indicated has spawned thousands
of malhArs. Over the years every Tom, Dick and Pussy (remember
Smt Pussy Galore?) has spun his or her malhAr yarn, probably
during the course of an idle afternoon over bagels and mocha.
Some of the well-known eponymous malhArs are due to Mr Ramdas,
Mr Charju, Mr Dhulia, Ms Meera, Mr Chanchaldas and so on. Most
of these malhArs are not, in my opinion, "big" rAgas, and I
don't mean this in an entirely pejorative sense. There are
the 'basic' ones, of course, profound and influential - MiyAN ki
Malhar, Shuddha Malhar, Gaud Malhar etc. It is hard to write the
words 'Gaud Malhar' and not take a few moments off to reflect in
awe of Mallikarjun Mansur. It is also from Gaud Malhar that our
current objet d'affection, Arun Malhar, takes cue.
Arun Malhar has been around for a long time but has lived in
obscurity. It probably lost out to Gaud Malhar. As you shall see,
they share quite a bit of their genetic material. Bhatkhande
mentions Arun Malhar in his exegetic "Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati"
but nowhere in his works is there any description of the rAga's
svarup or a sample composition.
Arun Malhar is laid on the woof of malhAr and imprinted with
chhAyAs of rAgas Gaud, Bilaval and Tilang. The result is a
seamless, composite melody, redolent of Gaud Malhar yet with
an identity all its own. Typical movements are:
S, RGM (gauD), (M)R (M)R P (malhAr), G M G,
(M)R P, P N D N S" (bilAval), S" n P M G (tilang),
S" D n P (alhaiyya bilAval), P, P D G P M G (special sanchAri).
The interested reader may at this point allow himself the luxury
of a comparison with Gaud Malhar I would recommend a run through
the bandish before making any final pronouncements.
The composition offered below is exquisite. It embodies all the
essential features of the rAga and hence may be considered it as
a distillate of the rAga. The rest is 'mere' elaboration. The composer
is one of our finest living vAggyekAr, Ramashreya Jha. His kindness in
explaining the finer points of the rAga and bandish is acknowledged.
As an aside: I recently had occasion to listen to a hybrid
malhAr, viz., Raga Durga Malhar, first from Shri A. Abhyankar,
a disciple of Phiroze Dastur, and subsequently from Dastur himself,
to whom goes the credit of conceiving it. It is an interesting
construct, nicely exploiting the mating plane provided by rAgas Durga
and MiyAN ki Malhar. The komal gandhAr of the latter is dropped.
Hopping back and forth from Durga to Malhar makes for an engaging
melody and an entertaining 15 or so minutes. The interested read
may take this as a homework problem and figure out the details.
Finally: the malhArs employing tivra madhyam are rare. Kishori
Amonkar's tour de force rendition of Raga Anand Malhar being one.
There are others but they are currently highly classified.
Warm regards,
r
*****
Raga: Arun Malhar
Tala: Teental (druta)
Composer: Ramashreya "Ramrang" Jha
bairan bhayi rtu Aj
barkhA ki, aeri sakhi ri
raina yeh sAvan ki
Dag bhayi BAvan ki,
"rAmarang" Avan ki
mag jO'ooN dvAra khaDi ri
Glossary:
Dag = stride
BAvan = Vamana, the dwarf (5th avatAra of Vishnu); the reference is to
the night in the preceding line being seemingly as endless
as Vamana's stride
Key:
(1) All shuddha notes in caps (M=shuddha madhyam, m=tivra madhyam)
(2) The " and ' following a note denotes its tAr-saptak and mandra-
saptak affiliation, respectively.
(3) The grace note is enclosed in parenthesis of the type () and it
operates on the note immediately following it.
Asthaie:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
S S RG M G
bai..ra...na.... bha
M - - - M (M)R R P M - G M R P P P
yi........................ ri...tu Aa........ja ba...ra...khA... ki
<meenD>
DN S" - - (N)S" - n P M - G
ae............................ri sa...khi... ri
<-----slide----->
Antara:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
P P N D N
rai.......na.... yeh
S" - - - - - S"N R" S" - - S" D N S"(N)R"
sA............................va...na ki.......... Da...ga bha..yi....
<smooth> <smooth>
S" - - - D - (n)D n P - - M R P - P
bA............................va...na ki......... rA...ma...ran.......ga
<meenD>
n D n P D G G P M - - N S" R"G" M" R"
Aa............................va...na ki......... ma...ga jO........ooN
<--------undulate-------->
S" - - - (N)S" - n P M - G
dVa...........................ra kha..Di.... ri
<-----slide----->
*****