(S-R-G-m-P-D-nN-S)

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Strictly speaking, Deepak is a ‘lost raga’, chiefly known to us through its status as Tansen’s fabled fire-bringing melody – said to have sparked uncontrollable blazes when he sung it at Emperor Akbar’s 16th-century durbar (…and requiring a special rendition of Megh to extinguish it). The raga appears in numerous ragmala paintings, and has a prominent place in many ancient texts – with Sarngdeva’s 13th-century Sangita Ratnakara stating that “Bhairava, Kaushika, Hindola, Dipaka, Sri, and Megha are the six primary ragas”, and Damodara Misra’s 1625 Sangita Darpana portraying the raga in poetic form (“Having put out the lamp, Dipaka, King of Ragas, draws near to his beloved in the darkened house. But he is made bashful by the brilliance of her jewelled crown…”). While its original swaras may have been lost to the winds of time, artists have since sought to reignite the spirits of these ancient tales, with three main ‘new Deepak’ varieties having arisen in recent generations: Bilawal-ang, Poorvi-ang, and Khamaj-ang (although, given the reimaginative nature of such endeavours, interpretations can vary wildly even within these categories). Tantalisingly, while the Deepak of Tansen’s era is hardly likely to have just ‘disappeared’, we will probably never know which modern ragas inherited its original essences. Also see Kedar: another fire-summoning form, traditionally classified as a ragini of Deepak.

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• Raga Megalist (365+) •

राग दीपक

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• Hindustani Raga Index •

—Ghulam Mustafa Khan (2002)—

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[Poorvi-ang bandish, e.g. 1:56] PdP, S/rS, (P)GPG, (G)r, S, P (P)SS, SS rr, S, G r S, r S; P(d)P, (P)GPG, (G)r, S…

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• Ragmalas •

Historic miniature paintings (learn more)

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“Dipak Raga riding an elephant, with four female attendants (an illustration of Diwali)…” (Penn, c.1800)

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“Dipak Raga, from a folio attributed to Jai Kisan” (Malpura, c.1756) / “Raga Dipak, opaque watercolor on paper” (Jaipur, c.1760)

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• 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: (uncodified)

–Swara Geometries–

(if assuming the Bilawal-ang form)

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• Core form: S-R-G-m-P-D-nN-S

• Reverse: SrRgmPdnS (=Gandhari)

• Negative: 5-2-3-2

• Imperfect: 1 (Ni)

• Detached: none

• Symmetries: mirror (Gm—nN)

• Murchanas: Bihag set

–Global Translations–

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• Carnatic: (~Begada)

S-R₂-G₃-M₁-P-D₂-N₂-N₃-S

• Jazz: Bebop Dominant

1-2-3-4-5-6-b7-7-8

• Pitch classes (‘fret-jumps’):

0-2-4-5-7-9-10-11-0

(2–2–1–2–2–1–1–1)

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o • o • o o • o • o o o o

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• Tanpura: (Sa–Pa)

• Names: Deepak, Dipak, Dipaka (not ‘Deepaki‘)

• Transliterations: Hindi (दीपक)

—Shujaat Khan (~2000s)—