S-r-g-m-D-n-S

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A mellifluous modern form created by Ravi Shankar in 1968, via a murchana rotation of Kameshwari (itself the product of backseat travel boredom in Bengal). While somewhat resembling a ‘komal re Bageshri’, Parameshwari’s hexagonal structure is ripe for open-ended experiments, summoning its own colours and tensions – and, despite its young history, has already garnered significant popularity across younger-generation artists of multiple gharanas. Shankar’s early North American performances, fuelled by visions of Cyclone Bhola’s ongoing devestation in Bengal, are known to have exerted significance influence on cultural icons including his sitar student George Harrison (even helping to catalyse his famous ‘Concert for Bangladesh’: full tale below). Also see the prakriti yet near-extinct Deen Todi, as well as Ahiri (the same scale plus Pa), and the nearby Prabhateshwari (which often presents chayas of the same scale) – plus other Ravi-authored forms including Jogeshwari, Mohankauns, Bairagi, Bairagi Todi, Ahir Lalit, and Pancham se Gara.

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Aroha: SrgmDnS

Avroh: SnDmgrS

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Chalan: uncodified – signatures e.g. SrgmDnS; DngrS; SDnD; Dm; mgrS (implied by Shankar recordings)

–Ravi Shankar (1971)–

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“No matter how beautiful the raga: if you are the only one who can perform it, it is not considered to be of any consequence…” (Ravi Shankar)

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—Context—

Origins, myths, quirks, & more

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Parameshwari (‘Supreme Lordess’), an idiosyncratic Ravi Shankar creation, has risen to significant fame in the past half-century. The sitar icon’s widow Sukanya recounts its unique origin in the liner notes to a stellar 1971 rendition, recorded in a friend’s Hollywood living room:

 

“The inspiration for this raga goes back to Chengali, a little village near Kolkata. During the filming of his autobiographical film Raga, Ravi-ji travelled to Chengali in the morning sometime in March 1968. While riding in the car, he conceived the nucleus of a melodic form that he later developed and called Kameshwari. By using the old murchana and swara bheda system, he discovered three more ragas at the heart of Kameshwari, and Parameshwari was one of them [the other two are Gangeshwari and Rangeshwari]. Parameshwari has flashes of known ragas Bageshri, Bhairavi, and Bilaskhani Todi, but is pure Ravi-ji”.

 

So, unlike the vast majority of ragas, Parameshwari’s murchana set ‘appeared’ via a specific sequence of theoretical abstractions, more than being derived over time from an evolving compositional repertoire. In a sense, it existed in Shankar’s mind before he had even played it. Such a specific origin story sits in clear contrast to the vague, mythological histories of most ragas – as with Ali Akbar Khan’s Chandranandan (improvised to fill spare studio tape, hastily named during a cigarette break, and soon forgotten by its creator), the ease with which we can relate to the human aspects of the situation is almost jarring.

 

While it’s difficult for us to imagine the atmosphere of Emperor Akbar’s 16th-century durbar, we’ve all run melodies through our head to idle away long hours stuck in transit. This makes it easier to pose further questions – what was Shankar staring at through the window at the moment of the scale’s conception? What were his first impressions of its rotational products? Would it even exist if he’d taken the train instead?

 

Unfortunately, I can’t ask Tansen what was on his mind when, as is fabled, he gathered together Darbari’s tones at Emperor Akbar’s royal court, and neither has Lord Shiva been forthcoming about his placement of swaras in Bhairav. But the exacting birth tale of Shankar’s raga means we can come up with all manner of guesses as to what he may have been mulling over in those moments. Did the original Kameshwari melody draw from Bengali folk tunes he had absorbed during filming? Perhaps the idea to rotate it came from filmic musings on murchana in preparation for a shoot interview? Or maybe the main motivation was simply to calm the swirling inner restlessness familiar to all obsessive musicians?

 

In the end, this is all pure speculation. But exact answers aren’t really the point here – what’s interesting is the ease with which we can picture these questions, and the uncanny relatability of the overall situation. Knowledge of the story can certainly change how we hear a raga: it’s pleasing to imagine its expansion outwards from a single ‘point’ in space and time – and also to get further into Shankar’s mindset, sharing in his wide-eyed enjoyment at the chance to fill out a near-blank melodic canvas.

 

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–Ravi Shankar (1970)–

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• How did Shankar explore the scale? •

The Pandit’s approach to adding fresh colour naturally reflected his predominant musical inclinations. As usual, he found fruitful harvest in forceful ornaments and dense, looping taans, often exploring the raga’s contours over rare rhythms supplied by longtime dance partner Alla Rakha – notably, the auspicious 14-beat dhamar taal (superbly showcased on their captivating 1970 rendition above, recorded just a couple of years on from the raga’s roadborne inception).

 

Shankar’s penchant for pairing Parameshwari with dhamar – described by some as a ‘warlike’ cycle – allows us to speculate as to which sentiments he may have come to associate with the raga. Jaipur-Atrauli vocalist Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande told me that she visualises dhamar as “a warrior going onto the battlefield, displaying joy in leading his followers and finding strength in doing so”, a description echoed by Benares tabla maestro Sanju Sahai (“a warrior moving slowly forward…he proceeds like this as he is riding an elephant!”).

 

These martial associations certainly match the strident aggression of Shankar’s recordings, and even mirror its rapid emergence into the world. To me, Parameshwari’s path almost reads like a Bengali folk tale of old, tracking some great soldier who marches across the Bengal’s vast rural landscapes, before suddenly finding himself put into action on a global stage, eyes darting as he seeks courage and calm amidst the chaos.

 

Sukanya recounts that themes of conflict, death, and destruction were playing heavily on Shankar’s mind during his fateful 1971 Hollywood concert: “It was during this gathering that he spoke about his distress over the plight of the people of East Pakistan [soon to become Bangladesh] in the aftermath of Cyclone Bhola. Being Bengali himself, he wanted to do something to alleviate the suffering”. The vast tropical storm – still the world’s deadliest ever cyclone – had killed over half a million inhabitants of the Ganges Delta the previous year (as if everyone living in modern-day Edinburgh or Lisbon had suddenly been wiped from the map). It devastated many of the communities he had passed through while filming, including the region around Chengali, site of the raga’s genesis. See the footage below (warning: graphic scenes).

 

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–Cyclone Bhola aftermath (1970)–

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“Cyclone Bhola, which grew from a depression in the Bay of Bengal, hit on 12-13 Nov 1970. It caused ~300,000-500,000 fatalities: mostly the result of a large storm surge overwhelming low-lying islands and tidal flats…In the 50 years since, 1,942 disasters have been attributed to tropical cyclones, killing ~800,000 people, an average of 43 deaths per day…” (WMO)

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Shankar took to discussing the human impacts of the crisis at length, seeking to raise awareness – and hard cash – from his star-studded living-room audiences. Sukanya explains how he would “invite friends over, and then all the four Beatles and people like Marlon Brando, Zubin Mehta, and Peter Sellers would drop by…”. And the occasion of Parameshwari’s 1971 Hollywood performance seems to have provided the necessary spark.

 

In Sukanya’s telling, “George Harrison, in attendance that day, listened, and from those conversations the seed was sown for what would later become the Concert for Bangladesh” – a pioneering humanitarian effort co-organised by Harrison and Shankar, that paved the way for future efforts including Live Aid and Live Earth (Does this mean Bob Geldof has Parameshwari to thank for his latter-day fame? And so can we ultimately blame Shankar for Do They Know It’s Christmas?).

 

 

While non-Shankar recordings of the raga remained rare for much of his own lifetime, several other artists have since explored it to great effect (see Listenings below). Bansuriya Ronu Majumdar, one of a select few to have learned Parameshwari directly from its creator, played it at Darbar 2015 (analysed in Phraseology section) – also noting on stage that Shankar had first shown it to him in London while they were there to record with none other than…George Harrison.

 

In Majumdar’s words, Parameshwari comes with “a unique, strange emotion”. His rendition superbly captures Shankar’s ethos of relentless experimentalism while also remaining true to the raga’s phraseological roots, brilliantly aided by dhamar specialist Sukhvinder Singh’s deep-toned tabla. I hope performances like this will inspire future generations to continue taking up the scale – five decades is barely an infancy in ‘raga years’, meaning the raga still offers up vast unexplored melodic territory. Parameshwari’s ripples will surely spread much further from here – perhaps its (car) journey is only getting started.

 

—Phraseologies—

Melodies, movements, characteristics…

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Being a relatively young raga, with no living creator to guide its abstractions, Parameshwari’s characteristic movements are still in a state of flux. Even Shankar’s own explorations veer through most interval combinations at some point – although certain patterns do emerge. Notably, Dha is strong as the vadi, and re is often played weakly in ascent, and approached with a g\r meend in descent. As mentioned, he often chose vilambit talas such as dhamar, favouring strong yet unpredictable ‘wandering’ movements.

 

The six-swara set of SrgmDnS (‘Ahiri no Pa‘) has no melodic ‘competitors’ (aside from the near-extinct Deen Todi). It can nevertheless be related to known ragas in various ways: as noted by Sukanya, “Parameshwari has flashes of Bageshri, Bhairavi, and Bilaskhani Todi“. Bageshri comes out via gmDnS in aroha, and Bilaskhani Todi can be suggested by the Todi-ang Srg in descent – while Bhairavi’s general sense of phrasal flexibility can overlap (especially in Dha-avoidant sequences).

 

To better understand its intervallic possibilities, we should also internalise its rotational siblings Kameshwari, Gangeshwari, and Rangeshwari. Their shared interval pattern is packed with ambiguous tensions, always tempting further elaboration: half the swaras are ‘imperfect‘ (i.e. with no swaras a perfect 5th above them), and two are ‘detached‘ (with no swaras a perfect 5th above or below: in Parameshwari’s case, Dha & re – both of which play correspondingly vital roles). And while some shadav ragas fit into multiple sampurna scales, Parameshwari’s varjit Pa means that SrgmPDnS is the only such possibility. This can illuminate further melodic parallels (e.g. ‘Gujiri Todi is to Todi as Parameshwari is to Ahiri‘: the former being ‘no-Pa’ versions of the latter).

 

While further sources are scant, a 2007 Chandrakantha thread provides excellent insight: “The re is not so prominent as in Ahir Lalit [e.g. Ahir Lalit: nrS; DnrS, Parameshwari: DnS; nDnS], and the way the phrase mgrgm turns in on itself suggests resignation to the inevitability of spiritual isolation: which is at the heart of the raga. There is pathos and hopeful longing in the important phrase m/nD, played with a very soft touch – and there is a ‘reaching’ movement via DnSr to a soft komal ga: which is not held, only touched“. Also refer to a summary from Tanarang (“illustrative combinations are Srgm, gmDm, mDnS, DnrS, SnDm, mgr, nrS“: plus an interlinked tutorial by Vishwajeet V Ringe) – as well as Parichay‘s reflections (“combining two very different ragas enigmatically: Bageshri and Todi come together”).

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–Ronu Majumdar (2015)–

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[refrain, e.g. 1:18] gmDnD mgrS; gmDnDS DmgrS…

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In this captivating excerpt, Majumdar enters with uttarang-based flurries (e.g. DnSrSn), painting the open canvas with quick ascending motions and long, looping descents (0:11: it’s almost as if the Dha–ni pair is ‘juggling’ with the swaras above, launching them higher and higher each time: DnD:Sn, DnD:gr, DnD:mg). He even references the raga’s capacity for experimentation, telling the crowd “I will try something new” – before launching into daring layakari with Sukhvinder Singh’s deep-tuned tabla.

 

Apart from serving as the main melodic launchpoint, mandra Dha is also the open tone of Singh’s bayan, giving the swara an inescapable gravity. In fact, the raga’s overall ‘centre of gravity’ is somewhat unstable – Dha often seems to exert the most pull, often winning the ‘tug-of-war’ with Sa (e.g. gmDnD; DnSnD). This ‘ambiguous root’ effect is further accentuated by the quiet tanpura, as well as the bansuri’s lack of chikari or other ‘drone tones’ – but the raga is never truly ‘rootless’ (for one thing, re-basing to Dha results in the similarly angular SrgGMdS).

 

Later passages, like Shankar’s original inceptions, give rhythm a starring role – overflowing with emphatic tihai and movements such as gmDnS; mDnrS; DmDmgmDnD. Singh’s ominous solo (1:20-2:20) is supported by shifting lehras including SDm gRS, gmDnD and D, mrgrS, gmDn. Majumdar’s expansive combinations are soon run through the full range of his flute, fading into aggressive DDmgm cyclings.

 

—Bonus: Shankar’s Rotation Process—

As explained, Shankar created (or ‘discovered’) Parameshwari through a murchana rotation of Kameshwari, also coming up with Gangeshwari and Rangeshwari in the process. Essentially, the thinking behind the ‘car ki seat murchana’ set would have gone something as follows: First, take Kameshwari’s SRMPDnS shape, and ‘rotate’ it through all of its six of its intervals (i.e. ‘moving the Sa‘ to Re, then Ga, and so on). Then, run some melodies through each rotation, and decide which are worth delving further into. Seen from the original Kameshwari base:

• 1 (on Sa) SRMPDnS: Kameshwari (‘Lordess of Love’)
• 2 (on Re) SGmPdnS: Gangeshwari (‘Lordess of the Ganges’)
• 3 (on Ma) SrgGMdS: [unused: ‘Faridi Todi no ni‘]
• 4 (on Pa) SRgmPNS: Rangeshwari (‘Lordess of Colours’)
• 5 (on Dha) SrgmDnS: Parameshwari (‘Supreme Lordess’)
• 6 (on ni) SRGdDNS: [unused: ‘Adbhut Kalyan both Dha‘]

(from Parameshwari’s perspective: you can produce Kameshwari from ga, Gangeshwari from ma, and Rangeshwari from ni)

—Listen—

A brief selection of superb renditions

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–Ravi Shankar (1971)–

• Maihar sitar (53m): Naturally, Shankar’s original takes are essential immersions. He conceived the raga “sometime in March 1968”, recording it several times over the following years: highlights include a 1970 studio album, the aforementioned 1971 L.A. rendition (recorded in a friend’s living room on Highland Avenue), and a 1971 Hollywood Bowl concert (“a slow gat in tintal…a fast gat in ektal“):

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[alap, e.g. 0:21] DnSr(g)g g(rgr) r(D), D(gr) r(D) D(Sn), D(SnSD) D(nDnS) SS S, n(rSrnS) D(nD) D, DD D(Sn) D(Sn) r(grg)g (grg)r, rg(mgmgr) (grS)rS, S(gr)g g(m) r(g) mm, gmD(n) n(D)m, g(m) r(mgmrg)r, rg(m) m(gmg)g g(rgr)r n(Dn), nSrg(m) n(m) m(g) g(rgS), S(nDn) D(Sn) g(rSr) S…

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–Tejas Koparkar (2019)–

• Mixed-gharana khayal (10m): singing a bandish to Maa Saraswati, replete with restrained ornamental fire, live at UPAJ with Parth Tarabadkar on tabla (Tejas’ father Viyay Koparkar studied under two vocalists known for their prolific gharana-shuffling: Vasantrao Deshpande and Jitendra Abhisheki):

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[refrain, e.g. 1:51] m(gDm)D, n(D)Dm, mmg\r(gmgrg) r(S)S; m(gDm)D…

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–Further Recordings–

• Kushal Das (9m): rendered to superb effect on surbahar for Shankar’s Centenery (also hear his son Kalyanjit’s recording)
• Parameshwar Hegde (9m): the appropriately-named vocalist explores the mandra saptak space over harmonium drones
• Prabhakar Karekar (12m): a Nov 1992 performance for Komal Nishad, representing an older generation of new adopters
• Prabha Atre (14m): the Kirana khayal legend expounds on an engrossing tintal tarana (Taanom Tadim Dimtana Derena)
• Shivnath & Deobrat Mishra (16m): a captivating jugalbandi by my own gurus – who, like Shankar, hail from Varanasi
• Neeraj Mishra (16m): another Benares-based sitarist, at a Sahai household baithak (the ancestral home of Benares tabla)
• Debapriya Adhikary (23m): captured live on Bangla TV, with a supporting cast of swarmandal, sarangi, harmonium, & tabla
• Malini Rajurkar (24m): another rendition of the Saraswati bandish, probably Parameshwari’s most prominent composition
• Samaresh Chawdhury (27m): Shankar’s late student balances smooth mandra motions with brisk, flittering taans
• Ronu Majumdar (30m): the bansuri master sets the raga to dhamar on Doordarshan (also hear his hour-long album take)
• Milind Tulankar (38m): the jal tarang‘s china-bowl timbres make for the most curious rendition I’ve found thus far…
• Tarun Bhattacharya (59m): a santoor renditon from one of Shankar’s foremost disciples, coloured by floating dissonance
• Also check out a fantastic playlist sent in by Rakesh Biswas: comparing and contrasting Parameshwari with the nearby Carnatic Natakapriya (“Each Natakapriya composition has been coupled with one in Parameshwari, and, as expected, none of them sound like each other: because of the vectoral associations in their notes, even though we agree to their scalar similarities!”)

• 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: Deen Todi

Also see other shadav ragas which omit Pa

–Proximate Forms–

Ahiri = ‘Parameshwari add Pa‘

Hari Todi = ‘Parameshwari tivra Ma‘

Sundarkauns = ‘Parameshwari no re‘

Salagavarali = ‘Parameshwari Pa-for-ma‘

Laliteshwari = ‘Parameshwari double Ma‘

Vinay Bhairav = ‘Parameshw. shuddha Ga‘

(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: 3-2-2-1-1-3

• Imperfect: 3 (Sa, re, Dha)

• Detached: 2 (re, Dha)

• Symmetries: none

• Murchanas: Kameshwari set

–Global Translations–

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• Carnatic: (Alankarapriya)

S-R₁-G₂-M₁-D₂-N₂-S

• Jazz: Dorian b2 (no 5th)

1-b2-b3-4-6-b7-8

• Pitch classes (‘fret-jumps’):

0-1-3-5-9-10-0

(1–2–2–4–1–2)

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o o • o • o • • • o o • o

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–Around the World–

Theorist William Zeitler refers to the same tone set (1-b2-b3-4-6-b7) as the ‘Sagimic Scale’, having, like Shankar, derived it through abstraction rather than observation – but doesn’t appear to have used it yet (a shame: Zeitler is a leading master of the ‘glass armonica‘, a ghostly instrument built from rotating wine glasses, fabled as an invention of Benjamin Franklin). Aside from the South Indian Alankarapriya (below), I can’t yet definitively trace other global instances of Parameshwari’s exact interval shape. But (despite the comparative paucity of scales with no perfect 5th), its six-note simplicity tempts me to think this is down to the sketchy search-indexing of global scale-forms, rather than a literal lack of use. Let me know if you notice it turn up elsewhere!

 

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—Alankarapriya (South India)—

(Vijeeshvenu, 2020)

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“A song with no alankara,
Is like a night with no moon,
A river devoid of water,
A vine without flower…”

(Bharatamuni’s Natyashastra)

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• Tanpura: Sa–ma (+Dha)

• Names: Parameshwari, Paramesvari (~Deen Todi / Kanwal Todi)

• Transliterations: Hindi (परमेश्वरी)

—More—

Further info: links, listenings, learnings, etc

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• Raag Parameshwari: For more on the raga’s strange history, see the rest of Sukanya Shankar’s liner notes, delving further into Shankar’s concern for Bengal’s post-hurricane plight, as well as melodic reflections from Tanarang and Srivani Jade (“the scale may be simple, but the possibilities are many, much like Devi Parameshwari, who brings together seemingly orthogonal qualities: fierce beauty, powerful grace, creative destruction…I saw some Arabic-sounding phrases pop up and surprise me…”) – and learn about George Harrison’s later involvements in my Ragatip article Did Parameshwari lead to Live Aid? (undoubtedly the best Beatle: although, as another English guitarist & sitarist named George, I may be somewhat biased…). And for more oddball East-West interchanges, read my blogs on such topics as India’s thriving 1920s jazz scene (“horn player Hal Green recounted that ‘the roots of Indian jazz were planted in the years 1917-1922. Bands consisted of piano, violin, cello, string bass and drums, and they played rag-time, foxtrots, and waltzes”) and How a teenage Zakir Hussain ended up living on the Grateful Dead’s psychedelic ranch (“Here I am on the floor, and I look up and then there’s Jerry Garcia…and David Crosby humming…over in the corner there’s Grace Slick screaming away, and Carlos Santana would show up and just kind of jam…”) – as well as Spinal Tap: Up to 11 (my April Fool’s ‘analysis’ for Guitar World, and a de facto cautionary tale in the ease of ‘over-recognising’ fictitious intercutural connections…).

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• Header audio: Sitar gat in dhamar by Ravi Shankar (1970)
• Header image: ‘Shankar in the 1940s, in his late 20s, playing his Kanal Lal sitar’ (Southbank)

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