Sanskrit Subhashitas: Raags Bhairavi, Komal Rishav Aasaawari and Bilaskhani Todi.

Saturday 30 June 2012

Raags Bhairavi, Komal Rishav Aasaawari and Bilaskhani Todi.

How to differentiate between these 3 Raags.

All the above 3 Raags are classified under Bhairavi Thaat. Their 'aaroha-avaroha' and 'vaadi-samvadi' swaras are as under:-

Bhairavi -S r g, m P, d n S' - S' n d , P, m g r S . Vadi - d . Samvadi - m

Komal Rishav Aasaawari (KRA) - S r m P, d S' - r'- n d-P, d-m g r S/ Vadi - d. Samvadi - m

Bilaskhani Todi (BKT) - S r g, P, d, n d S' --S' r' n d, m g r g, r S. Vadi - d. Samvadi - g

Although their aaroha-avaroha and vadi-samvadi are different, yet some swara patterns, if not used judiciously,produce the shadow of other two Raags in the above group. To avoid this Musicologists have made certain subtle changes in the chalan of these Raags. If they are strictly adhered to, it will not be difficult to differentiate between these Raags. These are as under:-

1. If avaroha is done as S' n d m g r S in Bhairavi by skipping P, it will give shades of BKT as also KRA. So while singing Bhairavi we have to give prominence to P to avoid the 'chhaya' of the other two Raags.

2. In both KRA and BKT ,avaroha is done as r' n d m, but in KRA P is also brought in between as r' n d m' d P d m, m P d P d m, r m P d m, d m g r- S. As m is varjit in aaroha and P in avaroha of BKT, use of swaras S r m P and r' n d P in KRA differentiate it from BKT. In KRA g and n are varjit in aaroha, which also differentiate it from BKT.

3. To differentiate further between Bharavi and BKT, g is used as 'ati komal' as in Todi (the correct pronounciation to be learnt face to face from a Guru). Meend is used more in BKT as r'nd ,ndmrg,mgrgr, 'n 'd S. Bhairavi being a sampoorna Raag 'khatka' and 'murki' are used extensively in it, which is not the case with KRA and BKT.

4. For 'chalan bhed' the following example will illustrate the subtle difference between Bhairavi and BKT." 'S r g r S ' this swara pattern , which denotes "Todi ang", if sung as S r (g) r S will be treated as Bhairavi but if it is sung as S gr g, r - S in a leisurely manner with correct intonation of g as ati komal, it will be BKT.

While singing very fast Taans rules of Raags are either being relaxed or broken by musicians now a days.BKT is a difficult Raag due to its complicated avaroha. So, for those musicians who use all the swaras in BKT, the advice o'f Pt.Ramashrya Jha is that they should better not sing such Raags, which require extensive Riaz and discipline.

I had separately posted my explanatory comments about KRA , Bhairavi and Jogia separately some time back. Those comments should also be taken into consideration . Due to technical problem the notations given above are not able to show the meend and kana swara, which should be execused.

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Preface

If there is a language on the earth, dead or living, which may preeminently deserve, by its compressibility of thought, richness of expression, and euphony of words, to be entitled the Language of Poets , it is undoubtedly Sanskrit. The Sanskrit writers cultivated poetry to such an extent , that every work, whether on the philosophy of the soul , or on the theory of Music and Dance, on a battle deciding the fate of the Country for a thousand years to come and shedding the blood of millions of human beings, or on the prosaic sacrifice of an animal offered to appease the hungry demons or the reluctant gods, came to be written in verse. Logic and grammar no less than the art and science of medicine, were thought worthy of being written in verse. Shortness and capability of being easily committed to memory were the chief objects in preferring verse to prose as regards the subjects for which poetry as such had no sympathy. But real poetry was by no means not neglected and among other kinds , epigrammatic poetry received special attention. The Panchatantra is full of short epigrammes on all possible topics relating to humanity viewed in all possible aspects. Thousands of couplets and stanzas embodying in the most laconic style - the choicest thoughts of serious as well as humorous minds , are floating on the surface of what is called learned conversation among our country-men , and a man is not considered learned, and perhaps rightly, unless he is able to repeat some celebrated saying of a poet or a dramatist illustrating either side of a question that may form the subject of conversation in which he is taking part. And though very few of these popular sayings can be verified as the productions of known authors,they are nevertheless greedily learnt by heart by the generality of Shastries (scholars of Sanskrit Language), and may be heard repeated by them in the course of their conversation. As they are very generally used among the well informed and well read of the passing generation of Shastris, they may freely be described as containing a faithful reflection of the modes of thoughts and of the sentiments of the Indian mind busy in a civilization that is now in the state of transition. Not infrequently , these epigrammatic pieces serve as authorities with the ignorant classes, to whom every thing written in the sacred tongue has the authority of Shastras.

It is trusted that what is said above will be sufficient excuse for placing before the public the following collection of 'SUBHASHITAS' . The collection is arranged under various heads and some times sayings both praising and censuring a custom or a state of things are separately given. It is one of the characteristics of subhashita poetry that, coming as it does from various hands, it is both one sided and exhaustive - one sided when viewed only in parts, and exhaustive when viewed as a whole. The reader will doubtless remember the shatakas of Bhaartrihari, who writing in praise of pleasures of the company of young women will raise them to highest heaven; but speaking of indifference to the pleasures of the world will almost in the same breath send his angels to the lowest depth of bottomless perdition. The same may be said of the epigrammatic verses of the Panchatantra, the interlocutors in which are never at loss to support their conflicting views by authoritative verses either quoted from old writers or composed for the occasion by the author. Both sides of every subject touched by the subhashitas are well, some-times perhaps too well, illustrate and the truth always lies between the two extremes.

(The above preface is from a book "SUBHASHITA RATNAKARA" -a collection of witty and epigrammatic sayings in Sanskrit -complied and edited by KRISHNA SHASTRI BHATAVADEKAR - published in the year 1888. The book belonged to my Grandfather , who was a Sanskrit scholar. I inherited the book from my father and all the Subhashitas to be posted by me are from this book, which is in Sanskrit. The translation of the Subhashitas has been done by me to the best of my ability. As I do not possess deep knowledge of Sanskrit, I may be excused of any discrepancies in the translation, if any. I hope that my humble effort will be appreciated by discerning readers going through my blog.Your suggestions in the matter are most welcome. Many thanks for your patronage.)

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