A pot of Golden light .. Deskar- Bhoop : Jyotikalash (ज्योतीकलश)

 

The inspiration behind writing this blogpost or may I say extending the previous blogpost about Bhoop, is Raag Deskar that got totally forgotten in previous blogpost. I also realize that the combination of Bhoop and Deskar / Deshkar require an independent post. 

Raag Deskar is a pentatonic raag with same notes as Bhoop but with different chalan. The vaadi and samvaadi swar, the dominant and semi-dominant note respectively, of these two raags are also interchanged and so is the tempos at which they sound better. Gandhaar(Ga) is dominant in Bhoop while Dhaivat (Dha) is dominant in Deskar. I often compare this duo of raags with the duo of Puriya and Sohoni, that share same notes but interchange Vaadi and Samvaadi swar.

One more raag that shares the same set of notes but has different chalan (gait) is called Jait or Jait Kalyan. This raag sounds very similar to Shuddha Kalyan (roughly a combination of Bhoop in ascending and Kalyan in descending). Shuddha Kalyan is a giant of a raag and is favorite of many stalwarts, has been popular with many centuries. Being a combination of two BIG raags (Bhoop and Yaman Kalyan) it has huge expanse. 

GaanSaraswati Kishori Amonkar dwelt upon Shuddha-Kalyan for almost last 10 years of life. The beauty of this raag is that it has Bhoop that sounds like Yaman (Kalyan), hence gives good food for thought among intellectuals and veteran classical performers alike. 

Coming back to the Deskar-Bhoop duo, to me these two raags provide a huge canvas for classical as well as light classical and popular music compositions. Marathi bhaavgeet, Marathi Natya geet and even Hindi popular songs have used these two together in many compositions. Sudhir Phadke's well-known Hindi compositions based on Bhoop-Deskar is "Jyoti Kalash chalake" and the starting song of Marathi Geet Ramayan "Swaye Shri Ram prabhu aikati, Kush-Lav Ramayan Gaati" 

There are many popular songs in Deshkar-Bhoop combination including the "Maze jeevan gaane" of Pu La Deshpande, sung by Pt Jitendra Abhisheki. 

In my opinion the perfect time of Bhoop is twilight just after the Sun set and the perfect time for Deskar is just before the Dawn, before the sun rise. (The time after sunrise at Dawn is taken by my favorite Vibhas!) 

 

Bhoop, Bhup ... The King !

Bhoop or Bhup is a raag that literally means "King" and hence can be sung anytime. The preferred time for Bhup raag as described in texts is of early evening (before Yaman). The raag however is also sung early in the morning. The term Bhoopali is synonymous with early morning song that may or may not be based on raag Bhup. Some call raag Bhup by the name Bhoopali, especially the exponents of Patiala gharana. 

Bhup is a pentatonic melody. Five notes in ascendence and descendance. Sa Re Ga Pa Dha Sa`, all pure notes. It is sometimes called as a basic raag taught in early days of student (along with Yaman and Bhairav). The beauty of Bhup is in its expansiveness, its versatility and hence in its grandeur! Like a King!

The opening tune of "Prabhat Film Company" are the notes of Bhoop.

Being a pentatonic scale, this raag has been a tool of "Dhrupadias". One reason for this raag being taught in early days of student is because by altering one note in Bhoop's scale, one can derive a new raag! In fact, using the 4th note (Ma) as base note (Sa) one can turn Bhoop into one more "big raag" ... Raag Pahadi (a specialty of Patiala gharana) 

There are many raags that can be developed using the scale of Bhoop by flattening either Re, Ga or Dha 

For example: 

My favorite raag Vibhaas is derived in Bhoop scale by flattening the Re (Rishabh) 

Flattening the Gandhar (Ga) gives rise to Shivranjani 

Flattening the Dhaivat (Dha) gives rise to Bhupeshwari (also called raag Pratiksha or Krushnaranjani ) 

All these raags have their own "bhaav" and "ras", their own personality or mood. Here are some examples of famous songs and bandishes of these raags:

Bhoop:  The famous "Prabhat tune", the "Amar Bhoopali" in Marathi, the popular bandish of Gaansaraswati Kishori Amonkar "Sahela Re" 

Vibhaas: "Saanjh Dhale Gagan Tale" from Utsav and the popular bandish "Taarava Ginat Ginat mai ko raiin gavaye" ... Here is the link to my blogpost on "Vibhaas"

Shivaranjani: The famous Raj Kapoor song "Jane Kahan Gaye wo din" 

Bhupeshwari / Pratiksha:  The famous marathi song of Pt Hrudaynath Mangeshkar, written by Suresh Bhat, sung by Lata "Maalvun Taak deep" 

Another classic that is a tune of Bhoopeshwari is, the qawwali by Aziz Naazaan with music by Quaisar Ratnagirvi. This is one of my favorites. Link to my playlist from YouTube, where many artists have tried their variations of this qawwali, maintaining the Bhupeshwari framework. 

With Bhoop in the pocket, a singer is all set to perform not just many other raags easily but also bunch of popular songs in Marathi and Hindi. The "Chinese Music", whatever I have heard so far, seems like almost 80% based on Raag Bhoop!!