Bhairavi: The Ragini Amongst The Ragas

Swarajya is happy to present to you, “Shruti”. Shruti will be a fortnightly column on music and will be run on Fridays. The purpose of Shruti is to share and discuss Indian music with the Swarajya community. We’ll discuss musical pieces, ragas, artistes, anecdotes and much more.

Each column in the Shruti series will have its own theme and we will share with you five videos/sound-clips/articles etc., which would fall under that theme. For example, if the theme of a column is raga yaman, we would share 5 vidoes/sound-clips of the raga with you.

Please note that these would be only the 5 yaman pieces that we at Swarajya would have enjoyed the most. Their being in the list should in no way imply that we think that they are the 5 best or greatest yaman pieces ever. When it comes to Indian music, we think it is best to let the masters themselves decide on matters involving the word “greatest”. What we would be sharing, would only be the five pieces we ourselves would have liked. Readers will always be welcome to add their own suggestions with their comments.

So, congratulations on, and thank you for, being here. We aim to make each column of Shruti an enriching and enjoyable experience. With that, let us begin with the first in the series.

The theme for the first installment is raga bhairavi.

Bhairavi is also known as the “ragini” among the ragas. One of the most popular of ragas, bhairavi is almost always sung/played at the end of a concert.

A good bhairavi symbolises the extreme of an emotion. Bhairavi does not stand for happiness, it stands for bliss. Not for sadness, but for grief. Not for devotion, but for complete submission. Bhairavi cannot be played to describe a pleasing sight, but to describe a sight of terrible beauty.

Given below, thus, are 5 pieces of bhairavi that have moved us.

 1. Chhannulal Mishra– ‘Koi Shyam Manohar Lo Le’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLMqnf22zmg

We begin the list with Pandit Chhannulal Mishra from Banaras. A master of the gayaki (singing) of the purabi ang (literally eastern part), Pt. Chhannulal Mishra here renders the words of Mirabai in Bhairavi.  The gopis in Braj are out to sell yogurt, carrying it in earthen pots on their head. But in their love for Krishna, instead of calling out to sell the item, they call out one of Krishna’s names– Shyam.

2.Vilayat Khan and Bismillah Khan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyK4Bvj07JY

Dare we say, there’s no bhairavi like this bhairavi. Ustad Bismillah Khan and Ustad Vilayat Khan were capable of creating magic on their own. What would have happened when they would have combined their powers? Well, we’ll just say, this bhairavi.

3. Pandit Jasraj– Mai Saanwre Rang Raachi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdDR6v4NhrM

Pandit Jasraj fans need no introduction to this. Panditji has many pieces in bhairavi but ‘Mai Saanwre. . ” is arguably his most popular piece of the raga. Apart from this, we don’t think we need to write more because, after all, it’s Pandit Jasraj.

4. Begum Akhtar– Humri Atariya Pe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFoI4tNIch0

Remember we mentioned that bhairavi was also called a ragini? Few can bring out the feminine aspect of bhairavi as well as Begum Akhtar.

5. Bhimsen Joshi– Jo Bhaje Hari Ko Sada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMpRu8yYjTA

How can there be a list of bhairavi pieces without Panditji’s ‘jo bhaje hari ko. .’? Panditji always sang it at the end of his concerts. This is arguably the most famous composition in bhairavi among fans of Hindustani music. If you have anything to do with Hindustani music, you know Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. And if you know Panditji, you know ‘jo bhaje hari ko. .’

Apart from the five mentioned above, there are 2 other bhairavi pieces which are not available the web, but which we would have liked to share with you. These are:

1. ‘Mhara olagiya’ by Pandit Kumar Gandharva
2. ‘Kaho ji tum kaise’ by Pandit Sanjeev Abhyankar

It’s a pity that a copy of the tracks are not available online for we are sure that each of the two would have been an earworm for a fan of Hindustani music.

Special mention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flfHoIikfq8

Well, it’s K.L Saigal.

So, this was our list of bhairavis. Please feel free to add to the list in the comments section. Let bhairavi take over.