These four Hindustani ragas carry with them the whiff of spring. Though they are sung throughout the year, compositions set in these ragas often describe the onset of this much-awaited season. More fundamentally, the movement of the ragas themselves – their characteristic phrases and the way these are linked to each other as the raga unfolds – are also thought to melodically evoke images of freshness, colour and joy, all characteristics of spring.
The artistes in this selection are all khayal singers, not practitioners of dhrupad, the other north Indian classical idiom. The list consists of two men and two women, two contemporary singers and two who are no longer living.
Raga Alhaiya Bilawal
Vidushi Kishori Amonkar (born 1931)
The contemporary queen of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, the Mumbai-based Kishori Amonkar studied under her mother Mogubai Kurdikar, who in turn had learnt form the founder of the gharana, Ustad Alladiya Khan. In this clip, Amonkar sings a traditional composition of her gharana, Kavan Batariya.
Raga Bahar
Pandit Gajananbuwa Joshi (1911-1987)
Gajananbuwa Joshi is a giant who deserves to be much more widely heard and known. He not only imbibed the best of three great gharanas, but passed his knowledge on to numerous students, including top contemporary singers Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar and Vidushi Padma Talwalkar.
Joshi first learnt from his father Anant Manohar Joshi, a khayaliya who sang in the Gwalior style, going on to learn from Ustad Vilayat Hussein Khan of the Agra gharana and Ustad Bhurji Khan from the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana. Joshi was also an excellent violinist and could play the tabla to a high degree of proficiency.
Raga Basant
Ustad Abdul Karim Khan (1872-1937)
Ustad Abdul Karim Khan was the founder of the Kirana gharana. He was born in Kairana village, after which the gharana takes its name and which is located in Muzzafarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.
He borrowed from Carnatic music the practice of singing sargams, or improvisatory combinations of notes sung within a rhythmic cycle by enunciating the names of the notes. He was influenced by musicians of the south Indian classical form whom he heard when he visited the Mysore court, to which he was regularly invited.
On the way to Mysore from Baroda, where he was based for a time, he often dropped in on his brother in Dharwad. There he began teaching Sawai Gandharva, who became his most famous student and went on to teach a whole generation of singers, such as the late Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and late Vidushi Gangubai Hangal.
Raga Hindol
Noopur Kashid (born 1992)
A contemporary artiste at the other end of the age spectrum from Kishori Amonkar, Kashid, who is in her early 20s, learnt from Madhukar Joshi, the son of Gajananbuwa Joshi, the great singer and violinist who is featured in the first clip singing Raga Bahar. Based in Thane, Kashid has also trained under various experts of natya sangeet, a genre of semi-classical songs that carry the narrative in Marathi sangeet nataks, the rough equivalents of musicals or operas.
Listen to these ragas as a single playlist here on YouTube.
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
The artistes in this selection are all khayal singers, not practitioners of dhrupad, the other north Indian classical idiom. The list consists of two men and two women, two contemporary singers and two who are no longer living.
Raga Alhaiya Bilawal
Vidushi Kishori Amonkar (born 1931)
The contemporary queen of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, the Mumbai-based Kishori Amonkar studied under her mother Mogubai Kurdikar, who in turn had learnt form the founder of the gharana, Ustad Alladiya Khan. In this clip, Amonkar sings a traditional composition of her gharana, Kavan Batariya.
Raga Bahar
Pandit Gajananbuwa Joshi (1911-1987)
Gajananbuwa Joshi is a giant who deserves to be much more widely heard and known. He not only imbibed the best of three great gharanas, but passed his knowledge on to numerous students, including top contemporary singers Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar and Vidushi Padma Talwalkar.
Joshi first learnt from his father Anant Manohar Joshi, a khayaliya who sang in the Gwalior style, going on to learn from Ustad Vilayat Hussein Khan of the Agra gharana and Ustad Bhurji Khan from the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana. Joshi was also an excellent violinist and could play the tabla to a high degree of proficiency.
Raga Basant
Ustad Abdul Karim Khan (1872-1937)
Ustad Abdul Karim Khan was the founder of the Kirana gharana. He was born in Kairana village, after which the gharana takes its name and which is located in Muzzafarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.
He borrowed from Carnatic music the practice of singing sargams, or improvisatory combinations of notes sung within a rhythmic cycle by enunciating the names of the notes. He was influenced by musicians of the south Indian classical form whom he heard when he visited the Mysore court, to which he was regularly invited.
On the way to Mysore from Baroda, where he was based for a time, he often dropped in on his brother in Dharwad. There he began teaching Sawai Gandharva, who became his most famous student and went on to teach a whole generation of singers, such as the late Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and late Vidushi Gangubai Hangal.
Raga Hindol
Noopur Kashid (born 1992)
A contemporary artiste at the other end of the age spectrum from Kishori Amonkar, Kashid, who is in her early 20s, learnt from Madhukar Joshi, the son of Gajananbuwa Joshi, the great singer and violinist who is featured in the first clip singing Raga Bahar. Based in Thane, Kashid has also trained under various experts of natya sangeet, a genre of semi-classical songs that carry the narrative in Marathi sangeet nataks, the rough equivalents of musicals or operas.
Listen to these ragas as a single playlist here on YouTube.
