7/18/2019 Reflections on Raga Hameer » Rajan Parrikar Music Archive

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/reflections-on-raga-hameer-rajan-parrikar-music-archive 1/3

Rajan P. Parrikar

Reflections on Raga Hameer

by Rajan P. Parrikar

First published on SAWF on April 17, 2000 

Last year (1999) I had posted a commentary on Raga Hameer on the Usenet

newsgroup rec.music.indian.classical (RMIC) dotted with representative sound

clips that, at the time, were prohibitively large for most readers to download.

 That logjam has now been overcome with the advent of streaming audio. Much

of the material has been re-arranged and augmented.

Throughout this causerie, M = shuddha madhyam  and m = teevra madhyam .

Raga Hameer belongs to the class of ‘big’ ragas and is known to project a

vigorous, dramatic mien. It is occasionally referred to as Hameer Kalyan (not to

be confused with Hameer Kalyani of the Carnatic paddhati , which is the

equivalent of the Hindustani Kedar). As a traditional Hindustani denizen of 

considerable heft, one finds in Hameer a variety of old dhrupad, dhamar   and

khayal  compositions. Just as Raga Nand is a staple of the Agra/Atrauli diet, so it

is with Hameer and the musicians of the Gwalior gharana .

Raga Hameer is nominally assigned to the Kalyan that   and employs all the shuddha swaras   plus the teevra 

madhyam . However, closer examination of the raga’s internal structure reveals a significant presence of the

Bilawal anga . Reliance on the taxonomical scheme of thats  alone can be misleading.

Hameer is of vakra  build; the arohana-avarohana  set serves to provide no more than a silhouette. It must be

underscored that the aroha  and avarohana  follow from the raga-lakshanas  and not the other way around. The

aroha-avarohana   set merely indicates the swaras   deployed and their approximate sequence. It is not a

statement or even a précis of the constitution of a raga. The most that can be said for aroha-avarohana  is that

a careful recitation can provide a quick & dirty handle on raga highlights.

Nominally we may define the aroha-avarohana set of Hameer as follows:

S, R G M (N)D, N D N S”::S” N D P, m P G M R, S

The essence of Hameer lies in the curvature of its arohi prayogas  and the crucial role accorded the dhaivat . It

falls to the class of abstract ragas such as Kedar, Gaud Sarang, Nand and so on. By “abstract” we mean that it

is not a scalar raga, amenable to reconstitution with up-and-down aroha-avarohi  phrases, that there is more to

it than a chaining together and summing up a group of linear tonal clusters. The happy marriage of swara 

punctuation and enunciation – known as ucchAraNa   - necessary for effective expression of abstract ragas is

attained to by taleem  and self-reflection (chintan-manana ). We shall now examine the lakshanas  of Hameer

and these pointers in concert with the attached sound files should help clarify the overall picture.

The key idea in here lies in the periodic build-up of melodic stress and its release. The arohatmaka  attack on

the dhaivat  tugged with the nishad  inscribes the Hameer signature. To wit,

G M (N)D, (N)D m P

The dhaivat   is powerful, a nyasa swara   and central to the raga’s veera rasa . The pancham   is also a nyasa 

sthan  but it serves as a point of repose, a station for dissipation of the ‘tension’ built up on the dhaivat .

G M (N)D, D N D P m P, P G M R, P G M R S S

Home Vault Vijaya Parrikar Library Nibbles Links Contact Search

Reflections on Raga Hameer » Rajan Parrikar Music Archive 7/30/2014

http://www.parrikar.org/hindustani/hameer/ 1 / 3

7/18/2019 Reflections on Raga Hameer » Rajan Parrikar Music Archive

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/reflections-on-raga-hameer-rajan-parrikar-music-archive 2/3

Notice the approach to the dhaivat   via the nishad . Sometimes an unornamented linear G M D generates a

pleasing contrast. The D-R   ‘consonance’ is often exploited by alternating tonal activity around these two

endpoints. The rishab   is rendered deergha   in avarohatmaka  prayogas  and is sought frequently for bringing to

conclusion a melodic thought in the poorvanga  region.

G M (N)D N S” 

PDPP S”, S” (N)R” S” 

mPDNS”, S” R” S” 

These are some of the prescribed modes for an uttaranga  launch and it is here that the Kalyan anga  is sensed.

S”, S” (N)D, (N)D N m P, S” (N)D P m P G M R 

This is an example of an avarohi prayoga .

The above ideas are now tied together to yield the chalan  of Raga Hameer:

G M (N)D, P, G M D N S”, S” N D P m P G M R, P G M R, S

Obiter dicta: The teevra madhyam   remains confined in the shadow of the pancham   and seldom has an

independent existence. Some treatments explicity seek the Kalyanic cluster m D N D P thus strengthening the

case for “Hameer Kalyan.” The reader is encouraged to reflect on the Bilawal and Kalyan angas   and their

interaction in the context of Hameer. In some renditions, we also sense an abhasa  of the komal nishad  as avivadi swara  in a Bilawal-like prayoga .

This completes our prelude. In a short essay of this type, ancillary details that round off the raga swaroop  have

to be left out. Furthermore, the subtleties of uccharana  can scarcely be conveyed through the written word.

Raga Hameer is represented in the popular Indian consciousness by the alltime classic from KOHINOOR (1960)

where the formidable talents of master tunesmith Naushad, lyricist Shakeel Badayuni, and the voice of 

Mohammad Rafi come together in a celebration of Shri Krishna’s Leela: Madhuban mein Radhika nache

re.

The movie BHARAT MILAP (1942) carried Tulsidas’s famous bhajan,  Shri Ramchandra kripalu bhaja mana . Although Shankarrao Vyas  scored the music for the film, the tune for this bhajan was composed by his

guru Vishnu Digambar Paluskar . It is set to Tevra-tala of 7 beats.

The sincerity in Mukesh ‘s voice immediately lends credibility to the bhava  of the lyric, set to music by Naresh

Bhattacharya: sur ki gati main kya janu ek bhajan karna janu .

To complete the ‘light’ segment we have the Marathi natyageeta   from VIDYAHARAN, vimala adhara nikati 

moha , made popular in an earlier era by Suresh Haldankar  (1926-2000) of Goa. This brilliant musician,

consigned to a life of obscurity for much of his adult life, shone but briefly in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

 He and my father were great childhood friends.

The version of Suresh-bab’s student, Prabhakar Karekar, (whose nasal twang gives his Marathi a Konkani

flavour) is very popular.

We now repair to the classical lounge.

 A stalwart among the Gwalior musicians, Krishnarao Shankar Pandit ‘s name cannot be omitted in any

discussion of Hameer. This recording was made in the final years of his long life and, lapses aside, it is hard to

miss the assurance of his swara-lagav . He presents the well-known khayal  of ‘Sadarang’: mora albela re .

 Another Gwalior alumnus Narayanrao Vyas wields a composition of his guru Vishnu Digambar Paluskar:

karana chahoon Raghupati.

Kumar Gandharva ‘s 1982 Hameerfest opens with the traditional khayal   composition in vilambit   Jhoomra,

chameli phooli champa . Although this bandish  has an awkward placement of the sam  on the “cham ” syllable,

Kumar manages to make it sound less obscene than it really is. But even he cannot make up his mind initially

 just where to locate the sam . The very first attempt crashes in no man’s land, another one on “pa ” and so on.

Reflections on Raga Hameer » Rajan Parrikar Music Archive 7/30/2014

http://www.parrikar.org/hindustani/hameer/ 2 / 3

7/18/2019 Reflections on Raga Hameer » Rajan Parrikar Music Archive

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/reflections-on-raga-hameer-rajan-parrikar-music-archive 3/3

Note that Kumar offers an idiosyncratic surprise in the poorvanga   treatment with his repeated utterance of 

GMRG, R  instead of the customary approach to R .

Kumars’ is a splendid exhibition of the ‘tension and release’ character of Hameer. Observe his delightful lark 

when he treats the teevra madhyam  in an explicit Kalyan-like cluster of the type: G M D m D NS” NDNDP.

 This is seen in his own cheez : ajaba duniya.

Shubha Mudgal ‘s forceful voice is especia lly well suited to Hameer. She sings the same chameli phooli 

composition emended appropriately to relocate the sam  to “pa  “.

Shubha also serves up a sprightly cheez  composed by Vinaychandra Maudgalya: patiya piya ki.

Ulhas Kashalkar fails to generate the required propulsion in this old Gwalior tarana .

 Another Gwalior snapshot in D.V. Paluskar ‘s classic rendition: surajhaya rahi .

The ho-hum Mishra  brothers are summoned here faute de mieux since I could not locate a worthy

representative of this Hameer chestnut: langarwa kaise ghar ja’oon.

Changing into the instrumental lane, we hear Ravi Shankar extract the distillate of the raga with a striking

economy of swara, a characteristic of that brilliant musical mind.

Hameer is primed for dhrupad  gayaki  and the Dagar dudes sing it very well. They insert their own spin – an

explicit use of the Kalyan-inspired sentence S R G m P. This gambit is heard at 5:25 into the clip in the

dhamar  by the Gundecha brothers: abira gulala lala kesara ranga chhirakata .

Salamat Ali Khan ‘s marvellous Dhamar rendition is laced with a gentle caress of the komal nishad in a vivadi 

role – around 1:57 into the clip – alluded to earlier: suno mori bata Khwaja .

Enter Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. This unpublished mehfil   of the great man begins with shoptalk where he

outlines the chalans  of Kedar and Hameer. Then follows the well-worn traditional Punjabi bandish : mendera 

yar avi .

 A rare glimpse of Faiyyaz Khan in this raga.

We conclude these reflections with a suite of compositions of Pandit Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang,” the

greatest living Hindustani vaggeyakara . Take measure of the design of the vilambit  bandish  set to Roopak, of 

the melodic build-up and its effortless resolution: tu kaun kahan.

In the matching druta   Ektala composition, the scramble back to the sam injects a fair bit of action: albeli

naveli re.

Finally, Ramrang’s delectable bandish  peppered with impromptu remarks on its sahitya : chunariya la de re

more saiyyan.

Share:

Copyright © 2014 Rajan P. Parrikar All Rights Reserved

Reflections on Raga Hameer » Rajan Parrikar Music Archive 7/30/2014

http://www.parrikar.org/hindustani/hameer/ 3 / 3