S-R-G-mM-P-D-nN-S

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A ‘double-Ma, double-Ni’ offshoot of the Khamaj raganga, with origins in the Maihar lineage of Allauddin Khan (as per the liner notes to his grandson Dhyanesh’s rendition: “Originally a folk melody of Uttar Pradesh, which assumed its present shape under Allauddin Khan…rendered in a lighter vein, and full of erotic sentiments”). Famously showcased by his protégé Ravi Shankar at several historic shows: including a 1949 performance for Jawaharlal Nehru, and the 1969 Woodstock Festival, where he deemed it ideal to broaden the horizons of an open-minded crowd numbering several hundred thousand (video here, and audio transcribed below: and, despite Shankar’s own disdain for narcotics, the audio also appears precisely 4m20s into the ‘acid scene’ of the 2009 film Taking Woodstock). Shuddha ma tends to be most prominent, anchoring complex phrase patterns which defy simple summarisation – to my ears, the raga is definitely ‘zonal’ rather than ‘scalar’, with disparate sub-sections separated in time rather than pitch-space. Refer to Ayesha Mukherjee’s brief breakdown (“soothing, romantic, and highly attractive to the common audience… widely used in semi-classical forms such as thumri and dadra”), as well as other Maihar renditions by Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nikhil Banerjee, and Ali Akbar Khan (often best as duets). Also see Khansaab’s hour-plus masterclass for his student Geoffery Lipner).

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• Raga Megalist (365+) •

राग मंज खमाज

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• Hindustani Raga Index •

Aroha: SRGPm, GmPDnD, PDNS

Avroh: SnDPm, GRGPm, GRS

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Chalan: e.g. SRGRGPm; GmPD(P)m; GmPDnD; PD(P)m; GmPDNS; SDnDP; GPm; (GR)GRS (Bor/Chaurasia)

—Ravi Shankar (1969)—

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[theme, e.g. 11:13] GmG RS(R), n(S) S(RS) n(S) D, DnSG m, S(NS)N(S), P/nD(P), (m)GmG RS, Gm Pm…

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• More •

Histories, melodies, mythologies, etc…

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—Ravi on narcotics—

Given the iconic status of Shankar’s 1969 Woodstock performance, with Manj Khamaj as its centrepiece, it seems important to showcase some of his own thoughts on the mind-altering aspects of the setting – and also the broader counterculture to which he was rapidly becoming an icon. In fact, he had started speaking up about these issues several years before the festival, including in a 1967 KRLA Beat interview:

 

“The message I’m trying to get through is that our music is very sacred to us, and is not meant for people who are alcoholic, or who are addicts, or who misbehave – because it is a music which has been handed down from our religious background for our listeners…If one hears this music without any intoxication, or any sort of drugs, one does get the feeling of being intoxicated. That’s the beauty of our music, it builds up to that pitch. We don’t believe in the extra, or the other stimulus taken, and that’s what I’m trying my best to make the young people understand…It’s the people’s business if they want to drink, or smoke or take drugs. All I request is that they just give me a couple of hours of sober mind. Whatever they do before or after is not my business.”

 

This is a distinctive angle of anti-drug criticism (and, I have to admit, one that presents me with plenty of cognitive dissonance…). Shankar doesn’t focus on the perceived social or physiological harms of drugs – but instead highlights that narcotic states of mind can cloud the ‘directness’ of experiencing raga music. He expanded on these thoughts three decades later in a 1999 NPR interview, recounting that similar issues had also concerned him back home:

 

“With maharajas and aristocrats in India…many times I stopped and told them I won’t play unless they move away all the drinking things…I always fought with them. But later on, I had to fight with my young friends, whom I loved very much, in the mid-’60s onward, the hippies…They came to my concert with the same spirit; stoned, absolutely high on drugs, LSD or whatever, shouting, shrieking, misbehaving, doing all sorts of things they should not. So I had to tell them, ‘When you listen to Bach or Beethoven or Mozart, do you behave like that?’. So many times, I walked out with the sitar and had to explain, ‘Please try to listen with a pure mind, because I assure you that our music has the power to make you feel high. But if you’re already gone, what you hear is not the real thing‘…”.

 

(Ravi Shankar instructs George Harrison)

On the subject of Woodstock itself, he drew contrast with his experience of playing at the Monterey Pop Festival two years earlier – another countercultural landmark perhaps best known as the Transatlantic launch of the Jimi Hendrix Experience (in fact, Jimi sat wide-eyed in the front row as Shankar played Bhimpalasi and a medley in Pancham se Gara):

 

“Monterey was something I liked, because it was still new and fresh. In spite of the drugs…when these young girls and boys showed these two fingers like a ‘V’, and said ‘Peace and Love’, and offered you a flower, there was some innocence and beauty which touched me so much. But Woodstock was almost three years later. And believe me, by then, I thought that this thing is not going to live anymore – because it was ‘far gone’. Music was just incidental to them. It was a fun place, a picnic party. It was raining and muddy. It reminded me of the water buffaloes we see in India…they sit there, and get so dirty, but they enjoy it. But, because it was a contractual thing, I couldn’t get out of it. I was very unhappy.”

 

“All that was so bizarre. When I went to Haight-Ashbury and saw what was happening, I couldn’t believe it…and all in the name of tantra, mantra, yoga, and everything! It used to make me so, so unhappy, I tell you. So it was difficult for me. But now it doesn’t matter to me. Whatever you do is your business. As long as you do it yourself well, as long as you are happy and you can make others happy, I think that’s fine. I’ve changed quite a lot in my ways of appreciating or being angry at something…”.

 

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—Dick Cavett 1971 (Ravi Shankar)—

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““I’m not blaming George [Harrison], but somehow, because of him, the sitar become really popular among young people, and with many rock groups. And because of the association with these rock groups…there were people like Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg, who somehow established that Indian music is associated with drugs. This is why in films, when you see an orgy, you hear the sound of sitar. But it is not the real sound of sitar, it is played badly…I request my listeners to be of clear mind, because I like to make them high myself – and I feel rather cheated when they are already high.”

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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: Nat Bihag, Chandni Kedar, Saraswati Kedar, Pancham se Gara, Shuddha Chaya, Medhavi

–Swara Geometries–

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• Core form: S–R–G–mM–P–D–nN–S

• Reverse: SrRgmMPdnS

• Negative: 5-2-5

• Imperfect: 1 (Ma)

• Detached: none

• Symmetries: mirror (R—d)

• Murchanas: Jaijaiwanti set

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• Quirks: ‘maximal‘ (swaras are optimally ‘spread out’)

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–Global Translations–

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• Carnatic: ~Hamir Kalyani

S-R₂-G₃-M₁-M₂-P-D₂-N₂-N₃-S

• Jazz: Lydian-Mixolydian

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

• Pitch classes (‘fret-jumps’):

0-2-4-5-6-7-9-10-11-0

(2–2–1–1–1–2–1–1–1)

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o • o • o o o o • o o o o

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• Tanpura: Sa–ma

• Names: Manj Khamaj, Manjh Khammaj

• Transliterations: Hindi (मंज खमाज); Bengali (মাঝ খামাজ)

—Pandit Jasraj (~2000s)—