Bhimpalasi made a very long trip home. Stayed with Madhuvanti and me for long while Piko played outside in the sun. Tired and weary from the afternoon sun, Bhimpalasi balances on a tight rope between hope and promise, the two pillars of our society. She stands unscathed, bathing in the white light waiting before Multani comes with its oranges and reds...
The voice is a wonderful thing.
A note about Bhimpalasi
The madhyam (fourth) is the most important note - an important 'nyaas' sthaan (note for rest) with emphasized elaboration around this note - S g M, M g M, g M P, M P g M P (M) g (M) g M... The Rishabh (second) and the Dhaivat (sixth) are skipped in Aarohi (ascending) passages, but are given due importance when descending (Avrohi). Use of the Dhaivat and Rishabh is symmetric and both are approached via the succeeding notes (D from n, and R from g).
And the wonderful Parrikar on the Raag...
The ati-madhur and ati-priya Raga Bhimpalasi has the penetrating power to infect the human mind and control it for days and weeks on end. There is as yet no known antidote to the Bhimpalasi contagion. Fortunately, it strikes only those with a mind and so the damage is restricted to a very small fraction of humanity.
The constituent swaras of Bhimpalasi are drawn from the Kafi thaat which corresponds to the 22nd Carnatic melakarta Kharaharapriya: S R g M P D n where M=shuddha madhyam.
The Aroha/avarohana set may be stated as:
n' S g M P n S"::S" n D P M g R S
The Aroha-avaroha barely betrays the rich fund of melodic promise vested in this mode. It is the genius embodied in the idea of Raga that impels us to look for fulfilment beyond mere scales. The abstraction and intellectual leap required to ferry us beyond a scale and into the realm of Raga must be considered a signal achievement in the history of music. The much ballyhooed Harmony, on the other hand, is a relative no-brainer.
Bhimpalasi traces its antecedents to the almost defunct Raga Dhanashree of the Kafi thaat (Dhanashree of the Bilawal thaat is still occasionally performed). In Dhanashree the primary Aroha-avaroha contour outlined above is retained but is characterized by a dominant pancham. When the accent is shifted off the pancham and the madhyam advanced there obtains an AvirbhAva of Bhimpalasi. It is this preponderance of the madhyam (nyasa bahutva) that bestows on the raga its allure.
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And then, even later, as I began a lovely walk on the ghats, Jaunpuri made a surprise visit via a telepathic lunar connection sounding Kumar Gandharva's voice.
This raga is very close in spirit and substance to the R-only Asavari so much so that some musicians (for instance, Omkarnath Thakur) do not acknowledge any difference between the two. In recent times Jaunpuri's dominance on the concert stage has virtually extinguished the shuddha rishab Asavari. A widely accepted point of departure in Jaunpuri concerns the komal nishad in Arohi sancharis. Whereas in Asavari n is langhan alpatva (skipped) en route to the shadaj that stipulation is relaxed in Jaunpuri. Still other minor areas of independence from Asavari are suggested, such as a higher value for P over d. As in the shuddha rishab Asavari, R receives a pronounced grace of S. All said and done, Jaunpuri (and the ragas to follow) deeply embodies the Asavari-anga.
And then the night came, with the moon one day smaller, waning of the moon coupled with the waxing of the heart. Madhukauns brings the moons light closer to my heart. God bless Raganga.
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A Visceral Path
