S-r-g-m-D-n-S 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 […]
• Raag Parameshwari •
• Raag Vachaspati •
S-R-G-M-P-D-n-S Vachaspati (‘Lord of Speech’) is a recent import from the South, adapted from Carnatic music’s 64th mela scale around the mid-20th century by artists including Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan. Consequently, its Northern form is still in a state of flux, with few firm melodic conventions aside from staying within the scale’s bounds – […]
• Raag Patdeep •
S-R-g-m-P-D-N-S Derived from the Dhanashree family, Patdeep somewhat resembles a ‘shuddha Ni Bhimpalasi’ (akin to the Western Melodic Minor), with both ragas ascending pentatonically before revealing Re and Dha in descent. Its unique scale structure, which features a distinctive run of four adjacent whole-tone jumps (g>m>P>D>N), brings natural prominence to komal ga and shuddha Ni as […]
• Raag Charukeshi •
S-R-G-m-P-d-n-S Adopted from the Carnatic mela #26, Charukeshi (‘One with Beautiful Hair’) calls for wide-open melodic exploration, favouring long lines which wind around themselves while visiting the furthest reaches of all three octaves. Like many Southern scales, it may be used as a canvas for recolouring multiple ideas from adjacent ragas (see avirbhav–tirobhav), while itself […]
• Raag Madhu Multani •
S-r-g-M-P-D-N-S An aprachalit raga combining Multani’s poorvang with Madhuvanti’s uttarang (also viewable as ‘Multani komal re’ or ‘Madhuvanti shuddha Dha’), which I found during my search for ragas matching the ‘32 thaat’ (=all possible 7-swara sampurna scales). Conceived by prolific rare raga explorer Abhirang in 2020, who banishes Re and Dha in aroha alongside other […]
• Raag Jaiwanti Todi •
S-r-g-m-P-D-n-S An Ahiri–prakriti raga introduced by Maharaja Jaiwant Singh Waghela (1904-1980): a hereditary King of Sanand who also gained wide renown as a spiritual teacher, vocal educator, and generous patron of the nascent Mewati gharana (also hear his famous Mata Kalika composition). Its twists and turns are linked to the lineages of Todi, Ahir Bhairav, […]
• Raag Ahiri •
S-r-g-m-P-D-n-S Traditionally held to cure stomach ailments, Ahiri allows for long, kaleidoscopic melodies – with a scale form resembling ‘Bageshri komal re’, ‘Ahir Bhairav komal ga’, or even ‘Bhairavi shuddha Dha’. Artists are relatively free to roam throughout the scale – often accentuating the ‘equilateral triangle’ of nyas (r-m-D: an augmented triad) while also drawing on motions […]
• Raag Gangeshwari •
S-G-m-P-d-n-S Like Parameshwari and Rangeshwari, Gangeshwari (‘Lordess of the Ganges River’) was created by Ravi Shankar in 1968, via murchana rotation of his newly-invented Kameshwari (itself dreamed up during a car ride through Bengal). Its unevenly-spaced shadav scale (prakriti with some forms of Sundarkauns) most closely resembles a ‘no Re’ version of either Charukeshi or Basant […]
• Raag Faridi Todi •
S-r-gG-M-d-n-S A raga known, as of 2025, through a single rendition: Supriyo Maitro’s spellbinding vocal tribute to his Dagarvani forebear Zia Fariduddin Dagar, live from the 2018 Faridi Samorah Festival in Bhopal with Aditya Deep on pakhawaj (“in remembrance of [Zia’s] 86th birthday, the festival was a musical tribute to the Ustad by his disciples, […]
• Raag Tivrakauns •
S-g-M-d-n-S A novel experiment by rare raga connoisseur Abhirang, formed by changing Malkauns’ shuddha ma vadi to its tivra variant. This shift renders both Sa and Ma ‘detached’ (i.e. with no swaras either 7 semitones above or below them: a property shared by only Harikauns and Sehera), meaning that conclusive resolutions towards the raga’s two […]
• Raag Prabhateshwari •
S-r-g-m-P-D-n-S 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 […]
• Raag Salagavarali •
S-r-g-P-D-n-S A rare ‘Ahiri no ma’ scale, combining a Todi-like poorvang with an Ahir Bhairavic uttarang. As per Parrikar: “S.N. Ratanjankar conceived of this raga…ma is eliminated to yield the following contour: SrgPDnDS; SnDPgPrgrS. Brilliantly exploited by Jitendra Abhisheki in a celebrated natyageeta. Watch out for the injection of a vivadi dosha via tivra Ma”. […]
• Raag Malay Marutam •
S-r-G-P-D-n-S ‘Malay Marutam’ translates as ‘Fragrant Hill-Breeze’. Maihar bansuriya Rupak Kulkarni explained to me in a 2018 interview how the raga “is from Carnatic music, which does not give so much attention to the times of day. We have decided to designate it as a morning raga, mainly due to the nature and essence of […]
• Raag Deen Todi •
S-r-g-m-D-n-S A near-extinct raga of uncertain origin, Deen Todi takes an ‘Ahiri no Pa’ form. Best preserved via an astonishing rendition by Kamalesh Maitra on the tabla tarang (a semicircle of 13 sruti-tuned dayan drums: below), accompanied by a multiphonic cluster of tanpura drones (tuned D-n-r-S). Parveen Sultana has also sung it live, and seems to […]
• Raag Rangeshwari •
S-R-g-m-P-N-S Like Parameshwari and Gangeshwari, Rangeshwari (‘Lordess of Colours’) was created in 1968 via murchana rotation of Ravi Shankar’s Kameshwari (itself dreamed up during a car journey through Bengal). Resembles a ‘no Dha’ filtering of either Patdeep or Kirwani, although its shape seems to be unique – with Shankar’s takes tending towards wide-open, poorvang-dominant movements. […]
• Raag Kameshwari •
S-R-M-P-D-n-S Dreamed up by Ravi Shankar during a car journey in Chengali in March 1968. As explained by his widow Sukanya: “While riding in the car, he conceived the nucleus of a melodic form that he later developed and called Kameshwari [‘Lordess of Love’]. By using the old murchana and swara bheda system, he discovered […]
• Raag Devshri •
S-R-M-P-n-S An intriguing audav raga resembling ‘Megh tivra Ma’ (or ‘Vachaspati no Ga/Dha’). Its unique swara set – which features the unusual ‘tivra Ma, komal ni‘ sangati – is principally distinguished by a disbalance in how Sa and Pa are ‘surrounded’ by the swaras above and below (nSR: ‘2-2’, MPn: ‘1-3’) – offering curious contrast with the symmetry […]
• Raag Zeelaf •
S-G-m-P-d-S A rare audav raga fabled to have been created by 13th-century qawwali pioneer Amir Khusrau, somewhat resembling ‘Bhairav minus re & Ni’. As per Rajan Parrikar, “this haunting pentatonic melody is composed of the following swaras: SGmPd. Jitendra Abhisheki gives a superb account with his own composition [transcribed below]: notice the strong ma and […]
• Raag Shivawanti •
S-R-g-M-P-D-S A sparsely-documented modern creation of sitar and surbahar legend Imrat Khan – kindly brought to my attention by his student Chris Stephens via the Chandrakantha forum: “In regard to the ‘idiosyncratic’ Etawah ragas, here’s a video of [Khan] playing Shivawanti, which he described as a combination of Shivranjani and Madhuvanti. I captured this in […]
• Raag Malayalam •
S-R-G-m-P-d-n-S A barely-documented morning raga created by Ali Akbar Khan sometime around the 1970s – named in honour of his mother (‘Malaya’) and father (‘Alam’: also the name of Khan’s son, born in 1982) [n.b. the Tamil-derived Dravidian language family of the same title is of a separate etymology, derived from ‘mala+alam’: ‘the land near the […]
• Raag Devranjani •
S-m-P-d-N-S Stretched by the emptiness of a vast Sa–ma poorvang jump, Devranjani is formed by removing the re and Ga from Bhairav. Abhirang offers up both ‘shuddha Ni’ and ‘double Ni’ variants, with the former appearing to be predominant – while Bhatkhande’s early 20th-century works discuss the importance of the ascending phrase Sm, mP as […]
• Raag Saraswati •
S-R-M-P-D-n-S Derived as a ‘janya’ offshoot of the Carnatic Vachaspati (mela #64), Saraswati is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of music, art, and learning – also venerated in Thailand as ‘Surasawadee’, Myanmar as ‘Thurathadi’, China as ‘Biancaitian’, and Tibet as ‘Yang-Chen-Ma’ (the word derives from ‘saras+wati’: ‘she who possesses flowing water’, associated with Harappan-era worship of […]
• Raag Madhuranjani •
S-g-m-P-N-S The name ‘Madhuranjani’ is used in reference to several distinct forms. The best-known incarnation is based on the SgmPNS swara set of ‘Dhani shuddha Ni’ (or ‘Patdeep no Re/Dha’) – as exemplified by vocalists such as Abhirang, Sawani Shende, and Jitendra Abhisheki, who also includes flourishes of shuddha Re in avroh. Some suggest that […]
• Raag Vijayanagari •
S-R-g-M-P-D-S A scale of Southern origin, seemingly imported North by Gwalior guru Balabhau Umdekar, which matches the swara set of ‘Madhuvanti minus Ni’ (although the Carnatic original is classed as a ‘janya‘ derivative of Hemavati). While I can’t trace any of Umdekar’s recordings, Malini Rajurkar has performed a pair of his bandish: Sajana Ghara Avo […]
• Raag Chandraprabha •
S-R-m-d-N-S A magical audav raga matching the scale of ‘Chandrakauns with Re instead of ga’ (or ‘Kirwani no ga/Pa‘, thus allowing for poorvang shades of Sarang. Benares bansuriya Ajay Prasanna cites the raga as a creation of his father Bhola Nath Prasanna, adding that Chandraprabha “celebrates the light and glow of the moon…its serene calmness […]
• Raag Sarangkauns •
S-R-m-d-n-S A rare audav raga of bewitching beauty, taking the form of ‘Malkauns with shuddha Re instead of ga’. As the name implies, the adoption of Re allows for poorvang shades of Sarang (SRm, mR), set in contrast to distinctive Malkauns turnarounds in uttarang (Snd, dnS). Like both Malkauns and Madhumad Sarang, the scale shape […]
