Rabindranath Tagore and Classical Indian Ragas

(Article published under a different name in The Hindustan Times, 2015)

In his ground breaking work A Historical Study of Indian Music (1980) Swami Prajnanananda posits “Keshav Chandra and others established a new kind of Brahma Samaj, which brought some new cultural and religious revivals in the nineteenth century. There appeared many musicians and composers who enriched the domain of classical Bengali songs, composed on the image and idea of traditional Hindusthani music like dhruvapada, kheyal, thumri,tap kheyal, etc., known as brahma-samgita. The composers like Jyotirindranath, Satyendranath, Dvijendranath, Rabindranath and others of the memorable Tagore House as well as Sir Jatindra Mohan Tagore, Sir Sourindra Mohan Tagore, Ksetra Mohan Goswami and other inspired the music atmosphere of Bengal. …It is to note in this connection that Rabindranath Tagore created a separate class of song, samgita, though it was nourished by all types of  Indian classical and folk songs of Bengal and another places. … He was a man of rare genius and intellect and his musical compositions brought a renaissance in the field of music. His songs are divided into main six classes… puja, prakiti, prema,  anushthanika, swadesa, and vichitra (208—209).

In  Jyotirindranath Tagore’s Jivankatha, he refers to how his older brother Dwijendranath, would readily sit down to compose Brahma Sangeet, the minute he heard  interesting tunes, including classical bandishes, and how along with other brothers, Rabindranath and himself,  would  immediately follow suit (14). In Jivansmriti Rabindranath speaks of how  his older brother Jyotirindranath and he were once summoned by Debendranath to Chuchra (Hooghly district), where he had sung one of his own compositions (1886) noyon tomare pai na dekhite/ royeccho noyone noyone (although the eyes yearn to see you my Lord, you are in the very eyes), which pleased his father so greatly, that he gave  him a prize of 500 rupees. He also mentions how he would often sing for Debendranath in the evenings, while his father looked out into the garden of Jorasanko, and moonlight flooded the verandah. Rabindranath also refers to classical music sessions at his house, in which the famous Ustad Jadu Bhatta sang.

The poet himself received early training in Hindustani classical vocal music. One important fact that needs to be mentioned in this context however is that Rabindranath did not like the tāans or long intricate combinations of notes, that classical vocalists sing as part of the metrical extension of melody. Rather he imbibed the predominance of meend or elongated note exploration, which create the mood or rasa (aesthetic) of the rāga, in the alap portion of kheyal.  Many of Rabindranath’s rāag based songs, which are set to a leisurely tempo, have a rich focus on meend. A song like megher pore megh jomecche (1909) set to raga mishra Sahana, for instance, has a lot of meend work. Another  well known example among many others, is  “Ki dhoni baje, gahana chetana majhe” set to rāag  Purabi, and composed in 1931,  where the predominance of meend or elongated notes, gives the song  its searching quality as the poet  struggles to access and express the experience of primal melody.

 Rabindranath’s experimentation, adaptation, reinvention and recasting of classical melodies and bandishes, began from the 1890’s onwards. Some of the most memorable compositions from the early phase of his composition of rāag based songs are Ogo kangal amai kangal koreccho (1897), set to rāag Bhairavi and  memorably sung by Gita Ghatak in the 1980’s. Another song from the same time that has tested, challenged and repeatedly drawn artists for many years, and set to the South Indian rāag (Purna Swadaj), is  eki labonnye purna prana. Composed in 1893 and derived from a hymn composed by Tyagaraja, it is a short, sustained lyric of astounding maturity, which magically explores the rāga, and requires technical dexterity over short tāans and the ability to produce cascading melody, involving many swaras or musical notes.

This great tradition of the performance of Rabindrasangeet based on Hindustani classical rāgas  begins  with Sahana Devi, Amiya Thakur and Menoka Thakur (at the time that Rabindranath was  still alive), and  includes among many others, canonical singers Ramesh Bandopadhyay, Shailojaranjan Mazumdar, Shantidev Ghosh,  Kanika Bandyopadhyay, Nilima Sen, Gita Ghatak, Rajeshwari Dutta, Chitralekha Choudhury, Subinoy Ray, Maya Sen, Bibha Sengupta and many others. Among more recent and distinguished singers (starting with the 70’s and  80’s) are  Ritu Guha Thakurata, Swagatalakhsmi Dasgupta, the enormously versatile Mohan Singh, Supratik Das, Srikanto Acharya and Apala Basu. Promising among young singers are Sounak Chattopadhyay, Shreya Guhathakurata, Kamalini Mukhopadhyay, Sasha Ghoshal and Iman Chakravarty. Raag based songs have also been sung by Rashid Khan, Ajoy Chakravarty, Jayita Chakrvarty and Lopamudra Mitra.

Rabindranath was especially fond of the rāgas, Behag and  Bhairavi, having countless songs set to them. One canonical song, set to rāga Behag, and modeled on the dhamar, is Jāge Natho Jocchona Rāte (The Lord Rises on this moonlit night), and composed in 1910. The song demands consummate mastery over classical tāal in order  for it to be adequately performed.  Rāag Behag is an evening rāga, generally embodying joy, and several Brahmo upasana songs were set to this rāga. Rabindranath’s lyricist contemporaries, Atul Prasad Sen and Rajantikanto Sen, also frequently used this rāga in many of their compositions. Within the fourteen beat structure of the song, Rabindranath introduces significant intricacies, sometimes elongating a word, like “Natho”  for five beats, sometimes allowing certain beats to elapse between words,  where the singer must be mindful of the tāal,  even if there are no words accompanying it. Among other widely known songs set to rāag Behag, are megh bolecche jabo jabo and bhara thak smriti sudhai, set to completely different tāals. Memorable songs in Bhairavi are swarthaka janam amar and tui phele eshechish kaare. Morning, evening and night ragas in which Rabindranath composed include Bhairav, Pilu,  Desh, Bageshree, Malkauns, Sree, and Kannada, and many others.  Some of his songs use combinations of notes from more than one rāga,  and are known as mishra rāga,   songs.

The archival relevance and significance of this tradition is attested to by the many CD’s brought out by RPG, Bhavna and P&M records, in which Rabindranath’s “bhanga gaan” (derived songs) are highlighted.  RPG’s Roopantari, is an early and definitive one.