Rajan Parrikar Music Archive

Reflections on Raga Hameer

by Rajan P. Parrikar

First published on SAWF on April 17, 2000

Rajan P. Parrikar

Rajan P. Parrikar (Colorado, 1991)

Last year (1999), I shared a commentary on Raga Hameer on the Usenet newsgroup rec.music.indian.classical (RMIC), featuring representative sound clips that, at the time, were prohibitively large for most readers to download. That bottleneck has now been cleared with the advent of streaming audio. Much of the material has been restructured and enriched.

Throughout this discussion, M = shuddha madhyam, and m = teevra madhyam.

Raga Hameer, a member of the ‘big’ raga class, is celebrated for its vigorous and dramatic character. Sometimes referred to as Hameer Kalyan (not to be conflated with the Carnatic Hameer Kalyani, which corresponds to the Hindustani Kedar), it enjoys a position of prestige in Hindustani music. Traditional compositions of Raga Hameer abound, encompassing dhrupad, dhamar, and khayal. For musicians of the Gwalior gharana, it holds the same significance as Raga Nand does for the Agra/Atrauli schools.

Raga Hameer is nominally classified under the Kalyan that and employs all shuddha swaras along with the teevra madhyam. Yet, its internal structure reveals a significant reliance on the Bilawal anga, making sole dependence on that taxonomy misleading.

Hameer’s architecture is vakra, and its aroha-avarohana merely outlines the raga’s skeleton. It is essential to note that the aroha and avarohana are derived from the raga’s lakshanas and not vice versa. They indicate the swaras employed and their approximate order, offering only a broad sketch rather than an exhaustive definition.

The aroha-avarohana for Hameer may be represented as:

S, R G M (N)D, N D N S” :: S” N D P, m P G M R, S

Hameer’s essence lies in the curvature of its arohi prayogas and the pivotal role of dhaivat. It belongs to the class of abstract ragas like Kedar, Gaud Sarang, and Nand. Abstract ragas transcend simple scalar structures, weaving tonal clusters with melodic enunciation—uccharana. This synthesis of taleem and introspection (chintan-manana) is vital to capturing its spirit.

The key features of Hameer are exemplified in its treatment of melodic stress and release. For example, the ascending attack on dhaivat, with its interplay with nishad, establishes the raga’s unique signature:

G M (N)D, (N)D m P

Here, the dhaivat emerges as a powerful nyasa swara, central to the raga’s heroic essence (veera rasa). Meanwhile, the pancham serves as a point of repose, allowing tension built on dhaivat to dissipate.

Examples of key phrases include:

G M (N)D, D N D P m P, P G M R, P G M R S S

G M (N)D N S” PDPP S”, S” (N)R” S”

The descending (avarohi) S”, S” (N)D, (N)D N m P, S” (N)D P m P G M R exemplifies the melodic possibilities in the uttaranga.

The raga’s chalan may be summarised as:

G M (N)D, P, G M D N S”, S” N D P m P G M R, P G M R, S

Notably, the teevra madhyam remains anchored within the shadow of pancham and seldom acts independently. Some interpretations incorporate the Kalyanic cluster m D N D P, bolstering the case for “Hameer Kalyan.” Additionally, one occasionally senses the shadow (abhasa) of a komal nishad as a vivadi swara in a Bilawal-like prayoga.

This introduction has necessarily omitted finer details that round out the raga’s personality. Furthermore, the intricacies of uccharana are better experienced aurally than through description. The sound clips that follow will serve as an essential supplement to this text.

Raga Hameer is represented in the popular Indian consciousness by the all-time classic from KOHINOOR (1960) where the formidable talents of master tunesmith Naushad, lyricist Shakeel Badayuni, and the voice of Mohammad Rafi come together in a celebration of Shri Krishna’s Leela: Madhuban mein Radhika nache re.

The movie BHARAT MILAP (1942) carried Tulsidas’s famous bhajan, Shri Ramchandra kripalu bhaja mana. Although Shankarrao Vyas scored the music for the film, the tune for this bhajan was composed by his guru Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. It is set to Tevra-tala of 7 beats.

The sincerity in Mukesh‘s voice immediately lends credibility to the bhava of the lyric, set to music by Naresh Bhattacharya: sur ki gati main kya janu ek bhajan karna janu.

To complete the ‘light’ segment we have the Marathi natyageeta from VIDYAHARAN, vimala adhara nikati moha, made popular in an earlier era by Suresh Haldankar (1926-2000) of Goa. This brilliant musician, consigned to a life of obscurity for much of his adult life, shone but briefly in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He and my father were great childhood friends.

The version of Suresh-bab’s student, Prabhakar Karekar (whose nasal twang gives his Marathi a Konkani flavour) is very popular.

We now repair to the classical lounge.

A stalwart among the Gwalior musicians, Krishnarao Shankar Pandit‘s name cannot be omitted in any discussion of Hameer. This recording was made in the final years of his long life and, lapses aside, it is hard to miss the assurance of his swara-lagav. He presents the well-known khayal of ‘Sadarang’: mora albela re.

Another Gwalior alumnus Narayanrao Vyas wields a composition of his guru Vishnu Digambar Paluskar: karana chahoon Raghupati.

Kumar Gandharva‘s 1982 Hameerfest opens with the traditional khayal composition in vilambit Jhoomra, chameli phooli champa. Although this bandish has an awkward placement of the sam on the “cham” syllable, Kumar manages to make it sound less obscene than it really is. But even he cannot make up his mind initially just where to locate the sam. The very first attempt crashes in no man’s land, another one on “pa” and so on.

Note that Kumar offers an idiosyncratic surprise in the poorvanga treatment with his repeated utterance of GMRG, R instead of the customary approach to R.

Kumar’s is a splendid exhibition of the ‘tension and release’ character of Hameer. Observe his delightful lark when he treats the teevra madhyam in an explicit Kalyan-like cluster of the type: G M D m D NS” NDNDP. This is seen in his own cheez: ajaba duniya.

Shubha Mudgal‘s forceful voice is especially well suited to Hameer. She sings the same chameli phooli composition emended appropriately to relocate the sam to “pa“.

Shubha also serves up a sprightly cheez composed by Vinaychandra Maudgalya: patiya piya ki.

Ulhas Kashalkar fails to generate the required propulsion in this old Gwalior tarana.

Another Gwalior snapshot in D.V. Paluskar‘s classic rendition: surajhaya rahi.

The ho-hum Mishra brothers are summoned here faute de mieux since I could not locate a worthy representative of this Hameer chestnut: langarwa kaise ghar ja’oon.

Changing into the instrumental lane, we hear Ravi Shankar extract the distillate of the raga with a striking economy of swara, a characteristic of that brilliant musical mind.

Hameer is primed for dhrupad gayaki and the Dagar dudes sing it very well. They insert their own spin—an explicit use of the Kalyan-inspired sentence S R G m P. This gambit is heard at 5:25 into the clip in the dhamar by the Gundecha brothers: abira gulala lala kesara ranga chhirakata.

Salamat Ali Khan‘s marvellous Dhamar rendition is laced with a gentle caress of the komal nishad in a vivadi role—around 1:57 into the clip—alluded to earlier: suno mori bata Khwaja.

Enter Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. This unpublished mehfil of the great man begins with shoptalk where he outlines the chalans of Kedar and Hameer. Then follows the well-worn traditional Punjabi bandish: mendera yar avi.

A rare glimpse of Faiyyaz Khan in this raga.

We conclude these reflections with a suite of compositions of Pandit Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang”, the greatest living Hindustani vaggeyakara. Take measure of the design of the vilambit bandish set to Roopak, of the melodic build-up and its effortless resolution: tu kaun kahan.

In the matching druta Ektala composition, the scramble back to the sam injects a fair bit of action: albeli naveli re.

Finally, Ramrang’s delectable bandish peppered with impromptu remarks on its sahitya: chunariya la de re more saiyyan.