S-r-g-m-d-N-S

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Among the youngest ragas to have found global acclaim, Antardhwani (‘Sound of the Inner Self’) was unveiled by Shivkumar Sharma in the 1990s, who discovered its unique hexatonic shape by chance while retuning his santoor from one raga to another (although their identity remains a mystery…). Adapting the geometries of Todi and Bhairavi, the raga is adored for its calming, meditative flavours, partly inspired by the late Pandit’s lifelong love of yoga. Prakriti with the seldom-heard Viyogavarali (independently adapted from a Carnatic raga by S.N. Ratanjankar) – while also lying proximate to Chandrakauns (the same scale minus re) and Gujiri Todi (which takes tivra Ma instead: indeed, there are similarities between Shiv-ji’s renditions of the two ragas, particularly the prominence of a grSNS conclusion phrase).

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Aroha: SrmdNS

Avroh: SNdmr, rgrS

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Chalan: uncodified – e.g. mdr; SNdr; mdNS; rS; Ndm; rg; rS (implied by recordings below)

–Shivkumar Sharma (1997)–

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“Until then, I had never decided to create a new raga…I believe there are so many ragas already existing: in one lifetime, a musician cannot master all of them…What happened? I was practising at home, and [while] tuning, I hit on this scale accidentally! When I played it, it sounded good…” (Shivkumar Sharma)

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—Context—

Origins, myths, quirks, & more

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All ragas are ultimately grounded in meditative ritual – ranging from the formative influences of Vedic temple chanting to the states of sadhana (‘immersive focus’) required to learn them. Antardhwani, however, is an unusually specific example of a ‘meditation raga’, invented with this purpose in mind by santoor pioneer Shivkumar Sharma.

 

The 93-stringed innovator explained these origins in an excellent 2003 interview with Michael Robinson: “Many listeners around the world were asking me to make a special recording for meditation. Until then, I didn’t know that so many people were using my music for meditation: at yoga centres, and for healing…A couple of doctors also told me that they’ve used my alap, and it has given very good results”.

 

The exact moment of discovery, however, came more by chance than deliberate design: “When we change ragas, we change certain tunings of the notes…In the process of going from one raga to another, I just hit on this scale: I got it accidentally. When I played it, it sounded good! So I thought, ‘OK, let me try to find the possibilities in this scale’…And then the aroha and avroh were decided…When I played it, it [brought] peace.”

 

At first he left the scale untitled, only choosing a name when prompted to by the record label (“I wasn’t thinking, ‘OK, I’m going to create a raga, and give it a name…it just happened”). After reflecting on the power of its flavours to “take me inward”, he settled on ‘Antardhwani’: ‘Sound of the Inner Self’ (antar: ‘soul’, dhwani: ‘sound’).

 

(Shivkumar Sharma through the ages)

Sharma’s flexible approach to the format continued: “Another interesting thing about this music…When we first recorded, it was only alap–jor–jhalla: the initial idea was not to have any composition! But everybody in the studio felt that it sounded good, but incomplete. So I said ‘OK, give me some time…’, and after a couple of months, I recorded these compositions”. Released on a pair of 1997 Music Today albums (The Song Within Vol. I & Vol. II), each sub-section bears a poetic subtitle:

1: ‘Mirrors of Infinity‘ (alap)
2: ‘Spaces of Silence‘ (jor–jhalla)
3: ‘Resonances of Solitude‘ (jhaptal)
4: ‘The Song Within‘ (sitarkhani)

Totalling around two hours, these four pieces remain the raga’s only formal recordings. Sharma’s interpretations span a multitude of musical shapes, ranging from the patient glides of the alap and mathematical architecture of the jhalla to the dense layakari and tight unison lines of the latter stages. Despite his original plan to omit the accompanied sections altogether, his gats are backed by a duo of drums: Bhavani Shankar’s pakhawaj in vilambit, which is then switched for Shafaat Ahmed Khan’s tabla in drut (n.b. You can hear this percussive pairing play together on his son Rahul’s Kalavati rendition).

 

He adds further detail in the liner notes: “I felt swaras emerging spontaneously, from within – and gave these swaras the shape of a raga, all the time conscious of their strong inward pull. Indian music is rooted in spirituality: whenever I play, it takes me deep into meditative concentration. In the alap, you can hear my fascination for the Himalayas, which have been such an influence in my life, with their peaks and valleys and resonant echoes…I gave different colours to the [gats] according to the varying moods of meditation, using the pakhawaj in the first as it has the feeling of temples: an almost mythological grandeur.”

 

His writeup also offers a pair of (presumably self-composed) poetic verses. Jhaptal: “Listen to the music of your self: heard, yet unheard. One plays upon the strings of divine love, and notes soar to the heavens and stars, and dance in timeless rhythm upon the raging seas; Celestial music vibrates through the corridors of time, in the endless canopy of the sky, and in the silent spaces of your mind”. Sitarkhani: “My mind is illuminated, by Truth made radiant, as now I see that all is joy; For from joy, all beings have come, by joy they all live, and unto joy they will all return…”.

 

With Sharma’s 2023 passing, it remains to be seen what will happen to Antardhwani from here. Given the sparsity of recordings (the only non-Sharma rendition I can trace is a brief live take by a student), the raga’s broader melodic possibilities remain uncharted. In my reckoning, it is a prime candidate for deeper exploration, with Sharma’s albums offering a rare balance between defining too much and too little: its melodic character has already been established beyond a mere scale form, but the santoor’s idiosyncratic ‘fixed-pitch’ tendencies leave ample space for fresh experimentation (I wonder what would it sound like on a meend-heavy instrument? Or if Sharma’s verses were transformed into bandish lyrics?).

 

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–Michael Robinson interview (2003)–

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“This body is perishable, but the self is immortal. Like how I’m wearing this kurta: I can change to another outfit…but this body remains the same. Same way, the self, which is ‘wearing’ this body, can change it, but stay the same. And this is the first question: ‘Who am I?’ – ‘Shivkumar Sharma’ is this body, not the self. I’m trying to know from where this self comes…” (full transcript)

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—Phraseologies—

Melodies, movements, characteristics…

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The raga’s odd geometries offer unique melodic possibilities. On first glance, its basic scale form seems to resemble Todi – particularly the NSrg space (in fact, Antardhwani is only a ma-to-Ma shift away from Gujiri Todi: and the ultra-rare Viyogavarali, its only known prakriti, is a Todi-ang raga). Sharma, however, classified his creation under Bhairavi thaat: tuning his santoor accordingly (i.e. eschewing Todi’s ‘ati-komal‘ re and ga srutis), and setting up a Bhairavic tanpura triad of Sa–ma–dha (occasionally seasoned by subtle synth & vibraphone harmonies).

 

Beyond this, direct instructions are scant. His liner notes state, without elaborating, that “ga is used in a very particular manner” (to my ears: he omits it in ascent, and in descent either wraps it into vakra motions such as grgS, or ‘hides’ it within a m(gr)r ornament). Other features include pauses on re, which is often approached as dNSr and used as a launchpoint for recurrent phrases of rmdNS, dmrgS. Intriguingly, the scale has a range of ‘consecutive interval’ runs: m-d-N (‘3-3’), N-S-r (‘1-1’), and N-r-g-m (‘2-2-2’: employed in the closing jhalla as m, g, r, (N)S).

 

See my transcriptions of both Sharma’s core compositions below – and for broader inspiration, compare to the congruent Viyogavarali (independently adapted from the Carnatic Dhenuka by S.N. Ratanjankar a generation earlier), as well as Kshanika (a seldom-heard Bhairav-ang form which differs by omitting ga throughout) – and also hear Sharma’s renditions of proximate ragas including Chandrakauns (here: the same scale minus re) and Gujiri Todi (here: ma>Ma).

 

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—Shivkumar Sharma (2002)—

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“At ITC, I played in a student competition that Shivkumar-ji was judging…he told me: ‘As you move upwards – higher in the scale – then tilt your head down.’ Let me explain: the Sharma family are from the mountains in Kashmir. Shiv-ji’s father taught him that as you move higher up a mountain, there is more and more to look at beneath you. And once you’re at the top, you can only look downwards. You must balance yourself – or else you will fall too quick!” (a Shiv-ji trick explained to me by Debasmita Bhattacharya)

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—Listen—

A brief selection of superb renditions

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–Shivkumar Sharma (1997)–

• Studio album (61m): a captivating collection of gats in jhaptal, sitarkhani, and tintal, from the raga’s original 1997 recording in Mumbai (Resonances of Solitude & The Song Within) – essentially comprising its entire compositional repertoire (also see the album’s curiously Carl Sagan-like cover art):

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[sitarkhani gat, e.g. 31:11] mdN, Sr, dm (mg)r, rg(rS), mdN, Sr, dm (mg)r, rg; Srm, rmd, SNrS dm g rgS; mdN, Sr…

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–Shivkumar Sharma (2012)–

• Live @ BCMF (70m): an absolutely invaluable full-length HD film of the raga – captured in front of a packed crowd at the Bengal Classical Music Festival, supported by Yogesh Samsi’s sublime tabla (for years, I assumed that no live footage of Antardhwani existed…until I stumbled upon this one, mistitled as ‘Hansadhwani‘: presumably a mis-hearing of the real name – and vice versa, another supposed ‘Antardhwani’ concert is actually Durga):

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[jhaptal gat, e.g. 21:26] m m, d(m)m, m(gr)r, g rNS, m m, d(m)m, m(gr)r, g SNS, m m, d(m)m…

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–Further Recordings–

• Shivkumar Sharma (3m): seemingly the only other filmed Sharma rendition – a brief solo, appended to the footage above
• Shivkumar Sharma (14m): a tantalising live excerpt from Sawai 2012, albeit with less-than-ideal audio & video quality
• Hari Santoor (19m): explored by one of Sharma’s long-term disciples at the Natyaveda Peace of Music Festival in Kerala

(these are the only renditions I can trace: if you know of more, get in touch!)

• Classifiers •

Explore hidden inter-raga connections: swara geometries, melodic features, murchana sets, ragangas, & more (also see the Full Tag List):

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Swaras: -4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10+

Sapta: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

Poorvang: SRGM | SRG | SRM | SGM

Uttarang: PDNS | PDS | PNS | DNS

Varjit: Re | Ga | Ma | Pa | Dha | Ni

Double: rR | gG | mM | dD | nN

Thaat: 10 | 32 | Enclosed | Inexact

Chal: All-shuddha | All-komal | Ma-tivra

Gaps: Anh. | Hemi. | 3-row | 4-row | 5-row

Symmetries: Mirror | Rotation | Palindr.

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Aroha: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

Avroh: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

Jati: Equal | Balanced | Av.+1 | Av.+2

Samay: Morning | Aftern. | Eve. | Night

Murchana: Bhup. | Bihag | Bilaw. | Charu.

Raganga: Bhairav | Malhar | Kan. | Todi

Construction: Jod | Mishra | Oddball

Origin: Ancient | Carnatic | Modern

Dominance: Poorvang | Uttarang

Prevalence: A-list | Prachalit | Aprach.

• Prakriti: Viyogavarali

Also see other shadav ragas which omit Pa

–Proximate Forms–

Gujiri Todi = ‘Antardhwani tivra Ma‘

Chandrakauns = ‘Antardhwani no re‘

Ardhanarishvara = ‘Antardhw. add Pa‘

(n.b. these are just ‘scalar similarities’, with nothing particular implied about phraseological overlap)

–Swara Geometries–

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• Core form: S–r–g–m–d–N–S

• Reverse: SrGPDNS

• Negative: 4-2-2-1-2-1

• Imperfect: 3 (Sa, ga, Ni)

• Detached: 1 (Ni)

• Symmetries: none

• Murchanas: none

–Global Translations–

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• Carnatic: (~Dhenuka)

S-R₁-G₂-M₁-D₁-N₃-S

• Jazz: Harmonic Minor b2 (no 5th)

1-b2-b3-4-b6-7-8

• Pitch classes (‘fret-jumps’):

0-1-3-5-8-11-0

(1–2–2–3–3–1)

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o o • o • o • • o • • o o

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• Tanpura: Sa–ma (+dha)

• Names: Antardhwani, Anthardhwani

• Transliterations: Hindi (अंतर्ध्वनि)

—More—

Further info: links, listenings, learnings, etc

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• Raag Antardhwani: The aforementioned 2003 Michael Robinson interview is the only in-depth source of information about the raga’s origins – listen in full, or read the transcript (“All living beings – no matter if it’s a lion, mouse, tiger, sparrow, or human – have one thing is common: their soul is connected to the same ultimate spiritual power. You call it ‘God’, I call it ‘Bhagavan’, Muslims call it ‘Allah’…There are so many unanswered questions about this factor. In the ancient times, when you wanted to know many things, you had to meditate…Yoga is not only physical exercises, it is much deeper…I try to practice yoga every day, and I do pranayama [breathing meditation]…”). Also learn more about Shivkumar Sharma‘s life in a Darbar article by Aysha Imtiaz (“while composing music for films, he was attuned to situational analysis, story arcs and narrative structure: the common thread tying his music together was to have the audience experience the bliss he felt while playing santoor alone…”) – and for more meditative sonic lore, see my Ragatip article on Music and Wellness (“Pandit Anokhelal Mishra was nervous, so the dentist suggested that he compose a short rhythmic piece in his head to calm himself. He became completely absorbed by the task, and a few minutes later the dentist asked what he had composed. Mishra recited it, then asked which tooth was about to be extracted. ‘So you didn’t notice?’ the dentist replied…”).

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• Header audio: Santoor alap by Shivkumar Sharma (1997)
• Header image: Shivkumar Sharma on stage at King’s Place in London, 2010 (Darbar)

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