Is there any raga dedicated to Lord Shankar in Hindustani classical music?

The year is a matter of 1978. Famous actor Dev Anand was making a film - Des Pardes. The producer-director of this film was also the same. Cinema fans remember this film for many reasons. It was Tina Munim's first film as an actress. Other supporting cast of this film included Ajit, Pran, Amjad Khan, Shriram Lagoo, Tom Alter, Bindu, Prem Chopra, AK Hangal, Sujeet Kumar, Mehmood and Paintal. Apart from this, Dev Anand had chosen Rajesh Roshan as composer for this film.

By that time Rajesh Roshan had received the Filmfare Award for Best Composer for the film Julie, but he was new to the industry. Even Dev Anand is known for his strong musical side in his films. Dev Anand's bet on relying on composer Rajesh Roshan was also not left empty.

Rajesh Roshan composed amazing music for this film. A very popular song of this film is first recited to you, then you will listen to another song and will talk about its musical side. Story of his raga.

There was another song in this film - 'Ye des pardes.' The song which was used during the casting of the film. This song was written by Amit Khanna. He wrote all the other songs of the film as well. Amit Khanna is one of the biggest celebrities in the film world. Apart from writing about 400 songs, he has also worked on other aspects of cinema. The special thing about this song was that it had a glimpse of the film's story.

Actually the story of this film was based on the life of Indians working abroad. It was shown in the film that Sameer Sahni (Pran) goes abroad to do a job. After a few days, they lose contact with the family. His younger brother, a distraught family, sends Veer Sahni (Dev Anand) to find him. When Veer Sahni reaches there, he gets to know the plight of Indians working there. Rajesh Roshan and Amit Khanna brought this aspect to the screen through this song.

Rajesh Roshan composed this 'situational' song on the ground of the classical raga Shankara. The popularity of the film's music can be gauged from the fact that Rajesh Roshan was nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Composer for the music of the film. That year Laxmikant Pyarelal duo was given this award for the film Satyam Shivam Sundaram. But the three songs of this film had a splash in the 1978 Binaka Geetmala.

Well, in the other film songs based on Raga Shankara, the film Rumzhum-Rumzhum, released in 1943, was a big hit. The song was sung by KL Sehgal, the most popular singer of that era, under the musical direction of Khemchand Prakash.

Apart from this, 'Bolo Bolo Kanha' of the film Chhalia released in the year 1960 and 'Bemurovat Bewafa' song of the film Sushila released in 1963 were also prepared on the basis of Raag Shankara. The song 'Bemrouwat Bewafa' was sung by Mubarak Begum.

Let us now tell you about the classical side of Raga Shankara. Raga Shankara is considered to be a raga dedicated to Lord Shankar, which originated from Bilawal Thatt. It has been considered as the Uttaraang Pradhan Ragas. In which, there is also the smell of Veer Ras. In the Raag Shankara, 'Ray' and 'M' do not appear in the ascension and 'M' in the ascension. The caste of this raga is odava-shdhva. Raga Shankara's plural voice is 'pa' and the conversational voice is 'sa'.

In any classical raga, the conversational tone of the plaintiff has the same importance as that of the king and the wazir in the game of chess. All the pure vocals are used in this raga and it is considered to be midnight at the time of playing the song. There is some difference of opinion about Raga Shankara. Actually, Dhrupad singers consider it to be the raga of Oudav-Oudav caste. Another definition is that the raga is not just in Shankara, so it is the raga of the Shadhava-Shadhava caste. Despite this, the most popular definition of these things is the first one i.e. 'Ray' and 'M' in the ascension of Raga Shankara and 'M' is not found in Avaroha. Let us now tell you the ascension and hold of the raga Shankara.

Aroh-sa, c, pa, nidhi sankarah-sanni p, nidhi, saini p, c, re, sa hold-nidh sani spp, gp (re) gals

To understand this raga in more detail, you can also watch this video of National Council of Educational Research and Training i.e. NCERT

Let us now show you the video of world-renowned classical artists to explain the classical aspect of the raga as always. As we said while telling you the classical aspect of this raga, there is a slight difference of opinion about its form. The method of practicing this raga is slightly different in Khayal singing and Dhrupad singing. Shows you a video of two legendary artists, which will make the picture of the classical form of this raga more clear. The first video is of the famous artist of Mewati Gharana, the world famous Pandit Jasraj ji and the second video is of the pillar Dagar brothers of Dhrupad Gayaki.

After singing, now the world of playing. You hear the melodious artist Ustar Shahid Parvez playing the raga Shankara of the sitar.

In this series of Ragdari, today we told you the story of Raag Shankara. Next time we will be present with another new raga and its story.