Raag Jog .. the crux of Khayal

Raag Jog is a favorite among all performing artists , vocalists and Instrumentalists, across various gharanas including Dhrupadiyas. Connoisseurs of music along with general music lovers seem to like the tunes and melodies composed in raag Jog fairly commonly. Jog , therefore pervades across various genres of music ; classical , light -classical , film music to Dhrupad.

Raag Jog , may have initially meant Yog or union , when it was created and envisioned. The one reasoning to it could be that it is a classic mix of Khamaj and Kafi. A pentatonic tune attributed to Kafi thaat in Bhatkande's classification.
The credit for Raag Jog is attributed to Haji Sujan Khan ( Sujan Singh of Akbar Darbar ). This raag is a speciality of Agra Gharana but is in vogue and popularity with almost all gharanas including the Dhrupadiyas, vocalists and instrumentalists alike.
It provides a perfect "union" of entertainment and philosophy , a union of two raags (khamaj and kafi) , that are supposed to be part of semi-classical or light classical music, to produce a brilliant pentatonic serious but pleasant , soulful and meditative melody of Jog.
I could list many of my favorites in Jog but have limited to few for sake of brevity.


Pandit Jasraj and Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia Jog

The famous and popular bhajan by Pt Jasraj

The classic "Daraspiya" bandish in vilambit "Peeharava ko biramaye"(पिहरवा को बिरमाये ) and the drut jod bandish , a creation by Ut Fayyaj Khan "Sajan More Ghar aye" ( साजन मोरे घर आए ) , that was  created to welcome his son in law on wedding day !

Here is Ut Rashid Khan with the "classic" khayal in Raag Jog.

Kaushiki Chakravarty , raag Jog :

The final instrumental rendition of Jog is the one I like and admire the most. Ut Sultan Khan with his two shagirds ,. in Pune, 2011.

Ustadji explains how Instrumentalists play "Khayal" bandishes in their renditions , just like vocalists. I like this point because  I have been observing that more and more instrumentalists (younger) have been playing much of Jazz like or Fusion type of music on Indian string instruments like Sarod and Sitar. They somehow lack that "Khayal" sense ( may be due to lack of training in traditional khayal bandishes )
An instrumentalist when performing "Khayal" bandishes, somehow touches soul of connoisseur deeper than pure tunes or gats.  Vocal style instrumental performances ( gayaki ang) sound more classical than the fusion type / Jazz type rendering of instrumental music, because these renditions have a "thought" behind them (Khayal), through bandishes rooted in vocal music.
 An instrumentalist performing a bandish is more attractive, sometimes more than the vocalist playing the same bandish ! ( may be due to non-interference of "words" and their pronunciations !!)

To me , raag Jog represents perfectly, what a Khayal is supposed to be ... A perfect blend of raags (Khamaj and Kafi ) that creates a "bhaav and ras" conducive to meditative , soulful and entertaining tunes ... it fits well to the definition of a raag as described in scriptures and literature .. रञ्जयति इति रागः .. an entertainment to mind and soul !


Here are some more posts related to Khyaal / Khayal / Raagdari sangeet

Khyaal - A poetic musical tweet !

Raagdaari -Khyaal and Bandishes : Part 1

Raagdaari - Raag sangit and Khyaal : Part 2 





  

Lost in Transliteration .. मन तू पार उतर कहाँ जाई हो

At the outset , let me confess my bias that "translations" of classic literature from one language to other NEVER works right. Infact , it invariably misinterprets the true meaning , nuances and interpretation that is envisioned in its native language (barring some rare exceptions )
There are numerous examples of this and I always tend to ignore such "translations". There is a big business of this "Translation of books into other languages" , more so in Marathi, where good Marathi writers have ventured and dared to translate classic literature from other languages into Marathi ( more so for commercial reason than the real need )
Similar attempts of translating classic Marathi literature into other languages (particularly English) have seemed childish play of words that have lost all the nuances and meaning during translation. (The classic example being the translations of the work of popular Marathi writers like Pu La Deshpande )
I came across Marathi translations ( better be called Transliterations ) of selected works of Kabir, Mira and other "Hindi belt" saints by a famous Marathi poet (Late) Mangesh Padgaokar.
Though this poet is popular in Marathi and has created some of the best poetry in modern Marathi literature , he totally fails in capturing nuances of works in Hindi by great saints, into Marathi. Infact , to be candid , such work looks like the hilarious "tranliteration" that one comes across during "literal" word to word translations by "Google" !!

I am not trying to criticize the late poet , but the following example clearly shows how the meaning is lost in "Tranliterations", when a poet simply uses the same word ( Utar jaiyyo here ) to translate from Hindi to Marathi, without caring for the hidden philosophy or the understanding that the same word has drastically different connotation and meaning in two languages.
In Marathi translation of "मन तू पार उतर कहाँ जाई हो" , the poet Late Mangesh Padgaokar has used the literal translation of "उतर जाई हो" to "उतरुनी जाशी" ... this totally disrupts the true meaning by Kabir (and distorts the idea behind original phrase) !
What Kabir implies in saying "Paar utar jaana" ( पार उतर जाना), is crossing the worldly pleasures towards enlightenment, more of positive connotation . The word phrase and verb "Utaruni jaashi" ( उतरुनी जाशी ) has a totally different connotation in Marathi language. It tends to mean "spoiled" , e.g आंबा उतरून गेला ( the mango got over riped and spoiled ) .. एखादा माणूस मनातून उतरून गेला ( losing credibility of some one in one's mind )
This loss in translation was more evident when the said Kabir lines "मन तू पार उतर कहाँ जाई हो" were sung by a singer along with the Marathi translation. The connotation and meaning got lost instantly ! Here is the link
 

 I realize such losses in translations in more pronounced fashion and with bigger amplification because of my education in multi-lingual environment of Kendriya Vidyalay , where I was fortunate to learn top A grade Hindi literature along with English during schooling. With Marathi as mother tongue spoken at home, brought up in culturally rich Pune, I was fortunate to grasp the best of Marathi literature.
The intention of this post is not to single out and criticize a particular poet , but to bring forth how "literal translations" spoil the "classicalness" of a brilliant creation !