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

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A seldom-heard raga associated with bansuriya Hariprasad Chaurasia, which (to my ears) resembles a blend of the morning Ahir Bhairav and the late night Bageshri. His student Rajendra Teredesai describes it as having “all the hues…beautiful, complex, yet spiritually uplifting…full of pathos and bhakti ras, a state of perpetual divine bliss”. Prakriti with Ahiri and Jaiwanti Todi, the raga also resembles Parameshwari and Deen Todi via skipping Pa in aroha (e.g. Abhisek Borkar’s sarod solo) – although, given its rarity, detailed phraseological tendencies remain uncodified. I was initially unclear as to the raga’s origins – some pointed out how similar it sounded to a 1971 Mehdi Hasan ghazal (Go Zara Si Baat), while sarodiya Steve Oda emailed me stating that “My guru-ji [Ali Akbar Khan] taught this raga in May 1976, and suggested that its creation may have been by his sister, Annapurna Devi“. Intrigued at the prospect that Hindustani music’s most elusive modern guru might have devised her own new raga, I had to investigate – but after a long and winding search (assisted by a crack team of experts including Rupak Kulkarni, Alam Khan, George Ruckert, Suresh Vyas, Anindya Banerjee, and Gopi Shanker) I was eventually able to confirm Prabhateshwari as a Chaurasia creation, with his first known recording coming in 1970 (although, given Devi was his guru, the raga is still very much part of her sonic legacy too). Read the full tale below, including more on the raga’s historical lineage and melodic workings. The name, while directly translating as ‘Goddess of Dawn’, simultaneously implies a ‘Morning Bageshri’ [‘prabhat’ means dawn; and the ‘-eshwari’ comes from ‘Bageshwari’]. Compare to Mangal Dhwani (the same scale minus ni, also explored by Chaurasia) – and also see other Hariprasad ragas including Shivanjali, Durgawati, Hemangi, Haripriya, and Kalaranjani.

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राग प्रभातेश्वरी

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Aroha: SrgmDnS

Avroh: SnDPmgrS

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Chalan: signatures e.g. m; gSP; D; nSg; rgrS (Kulkarni)

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—Rakesh Chaurasia (2018)—

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[alap, e.g. 0:45] mgmn DD, mgmD PP, m(g)m(g)P m, mn DPm\g, mS (P)D, D/mSD n, (Sn)mgr(Sr)S…

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• More •

Histories, melodies, mythologies, etc…

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—Prabhateshwari’s origins—

As mentioned above, in early 2024 I received a tantalising email from sarodiya Steve Oda, a longtime student of Ali Akbar Khan, stating that “my guru-ji taught this raga in May 1976, and suggested that its creation may have been by his sister, Annapurna Devi“. Intrigued at the prospect that Hindustani music’s greatest and most elusive modern guru might have devised her own new raga, I had to find out more. Initially, I contacted to those who are close to Prabhateshwari’s possible authors (essentially, Allauddin Khan’s early-1970s teaching nexus, and Annapurna Devi’s students of the following decade). While nobody seemed sure who had composed the raga, I received valuable insights on its melodic shape and historical path:

 

—Alam Khan, Ali Akbar Khan’s son, unearthed notes from the AAK Library archives, revealing that “it does seem [Prabhateshwari] was taught a number of times…I have no knowledge of this raga, but there is a good amount of notation and some audio of the classes. In 1977 it was taught at AACM in Fairfax, California by my father, and notated by his student James Pomerantz during an advanced sarod class: ‘Many ways to go…Must maintain shwari + prakhatt…Like Ahir Bhairav with [komal] ga, but don’t play like Ahir Bhairav. Maybe composed by Annapurna’.”

 

—George Ruckert, another of Ali Akbar Khan’s seniormost students, also traced the raga in AACM class notes, but was similarly stumped as to its origins: “There was no source given…I looked all over for the source of Prabhateshwari, and couldn’t find anything”. When pressed to speculate on its likely genesis, he reasoned that the melodic concept may be connected to Allauddin Khan, adding that “Annapurna Devi sounds like a reasonable guess as well, since Hariprasad-ji was her student”.

 

—Suresh Vyas, one of Devi’s long-term sarod disciples, sent in firsthand information gleaned from conversations with his guru: “As far as I know, my guru Ma Annapurna Devi has never claimed to have created this or any other raga. I say this because she was repeatedly asked about it by some students, and every time her answer was a emphatic ‘No’. She said that her brother [Ali Akbar Khan] and [Ravi Shankar] have done, but she hadn’t. Having said that: like a true master, she would never ‘display her knowledge’, so one can never tell – I can only say that she never taught me this raga, nor have I ever heard her mention it…But I was talking at a seminar yesterday and met my old friend Anindya Banerjee. I mentioned your query, and he seemed to have some more information.”

 

—Anindya Banerjee, a sarod and sursingar artist who studied under Ali Akbar Khan, Nikhil Banerjee, and others around them, quickly got in touch – connecting Prabhateshwari’s melodic inspiration to its SrgmPDnS swara set: “It is an old scale; lessly taught, played, sung, or heard. Different musicians call it different names: Dilshad Khan calls it ‘Deen Todi’, Pandit Jasraj ‘Jaiwanti Todi’, and others ‘Ahiri Todi’. Ali Akbar Khan taught it as ‘Prabhateshwari’…but later, when I asked him about the name, he said you can also call it ‘Ahiri Todi’. It is not a creation of Annapurna Devi.”

 

Much as I wanted to believe that Prabhateshwari was a Devi creation, this now seemed unlikely – but I was still at an impasse as to where the raga had come from. Plausible remaining candidates included Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, and Hariprasad Chaurasia – with the latter seeming most likely, given that nobody else had released a formal recording until recent years. Luckily, I was soon enlightened by a wave of replies from the bansuriyas I had reached out to, confirming these suspicions:

 

—Rupak Kulkarni, one of Hariprasad’s leading students: “Yes, my guru-ji created this raga, and mentioned it in a [concert] somewhere in India in the late 1980s (I don’t remember the place). He mentioned that it is a sampurna raga, with komal re-ga-ni and shuddha Dha – and Pa being taken straight in avroh, and the sam placed on low Dha. His composition is m; gS P; D; n Sg rg; rS – I will record my interpretation of it sometime!” (n.b. Also listen to Kulkarni’s new Raag Annapurna, composed in honour of his grand-guru: so far, my site hosts the only public recording).

 

—Rajendra Teredesai, another Hari-ji disciple, added context to his own superb Prabhateshwari rendition: “One of my all time favourite ragas…a creation of my guru-ji [from] several decades ago…It has all the hues, a beautiful, complex, yet spiritually uplifting melody with a heart-rending emotive reach. The raga is full of pathos & bhakti rasa, transporting the listener to a state of perpetual divine bliss…I can’t thank him enough for giving this melodic masterpiece to the world”.

 

—Gopi Shanker, a bansuriya who received instruction from Chaurasia disciple Deepak Ram as well as sarodiya Puspen Dey, wrote to me in June 2025 with what seemed like conclusive proof: “I was thrilled to see you covering the rare Raag Prabhateshwari. I wanted to share this performance, where Chaurasia clearly states that he composed the raga, and that it is indeed a combination of Ahir Bhairav and Bageshri. He first recorded it in 1970, which would pre-date the 1976 anecdote from Steve Oda”. This fabulous hour-long rendition (below) – recorded at Komal Nishad’s Sampoorna Ratri Festival on Jan 26th 1992, but only uploaded to YouTube in mid-2023 – had thus far eluded my attention. Here are Hariprasad’s introductory remarks (thanks to Gopi Shanker for translation assistance):

 

“I wish you all a good morning, and also congratulate you on Republic Day…When I was on my way here, I heard that you have been listening to Bageshwari and Rageshwari [=Bageshri/Rageshri] – so I thought I should also play something ending in ‘-shwari’. Many years ago I created and recorded a raga, but never played it live back then. It is a combination of Bageshwari, a night raga, and Ahir Bhairav, a morning raga. I combined the two and named it ‘Prabhateshwari’ [‘Goddess of Dawn’]. So, after Bageshwari and Rageshwari, now listen to this third ‘-shwari’, and tell me how you liked it! I will play an alap and jor, followed by a composition in rupak taal. Now, listen to the morning Raag Prabhateshwari…”:

 

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—Hariprasad Chaurasia (1992)—

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• In fact, one mystery remains: A haunting Mehdi Hasan ghazal from 1971 (Go Zara Si Baat) sounds remarkably similar to Chaurasia’s earliest Prabhateshwari recordings (from 1970). I’ve never been able to establish any direct connection between them – but do I know that around this time, Mehdi Hasan played a vital role in helping Sultan Khan revitalise the ‘whole-tone scale’ Raag Sehera, demonstrating that he took an active interest in exploring strange new ragas…further information welcome!

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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

Thaat: 10 | 32 | Enclosed | Inexact

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

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

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Aroha: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

Avroh: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

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

Samay: Morning | Aftern. | Eve. | Night

Construction: Jod | Mishra | Oddball

Origin: Ancient | Carnatic | Modern

Dominance: Poorvang | Uttarang

Prevalence: A-list | Prachalit | Aprach.

• Prakriti: Thaat #30, Ahiri, Jaiwanti Todi, Ganeshkauns

–Swara Geometries–

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• Core form: S–r–g–m–P–D–n–S

• Reverse: SRgmPDNS (=Patdeep)

• Complement: SRGMdNS

• Imperfect: 3 (re, Pa, Dha)

• Detached: 2 (re, Dha)

• Symmetries: mirror (m—N)

• Murchanas: Charukeshi set

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

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–Global Translations–

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• Carnatic: ~Natakapriya (mela #10)

S-R₁-G₂-M₁-P-D₂-N₂-S

• Jazz: Dorian b2

1-b2-b3-4-5-6-b7-8

• Pitch classes (‘fret-jumps’):

0-1-3-5-7-9-10-12

(1–2–2–2–2–1–2)

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o o • o • o • o • o o • o

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• Tanpura: Sa–ma

• Names: Prabhateshwari, Prabhatashwaree

• Transliterations: Hindi (प्रभातेश्वरी)

—Hariprasad Chaurasia (1970)—