The Khamaj Kaleidoscope

“It is unbearable! It is beauty beyond description! With shuddha notes throughout and then playing games with me by using Komal Nishad in the descent!”

- Vasudev Murthy ,TheTanpura

A song titled after this Raag was the beginning of my tryst with the singing and music of Shafqat Amanat Ali. Adapted from a beautiful traditional Patiala Gharana bandish the song inspired a whole blog post as it is very special to me. Since I have already done an entire post on the song, I will not include any of Shafqat’s versions in this post. Here is his elder brother, Asad, singing the bandish, instead.

But this rendition by Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, is close to my heart and  you very likely will be mind- blown after hearing it , as I am, each time, I do

Khamaj is a very sweet, light raga, used extensively in lighter forms of Hindustani classical music like thumris ,dadras and the seasonal chaitis and horis. It has also captured the imagination of music composers in movies. Dhrupad and long khayals are rare in this raag.

Here is Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty of the Patiala Gharana performing a khayal in the raag

 “He sang Shuddha Nishad, Shadaj, Shuddha Gandhar, Shuddha Madhyam, Pancham, Shuddha Dhaivat, Shuddha Nishad and Shadaj. He stopped dramatically. Then he continued in a whisper, Shadaj, extending it long and soft. Then with a jerk, he crept down, singing Komal Nishad, like the bending branch of a Mango tree! He approached the note and seemed to study it from all angles – literally! He bent this way and that, stood up and looked downwards, fingers still on the harmonium. He looked sideways and then forward. He looked backwards and lowered his voice! He was possessed by the magic of the Nishads, traversing all the millions of ways in which they could be reached”
[1]

An evening time raga, it is the representative Raag of the Thaat by the same name under the Bhatkande system of classification of Hindustani Music

The beauty of the Raag indeed lies in the Komal Nishaad in the descent, which adds a pensive beauty to the Raag. Khamaj is Shadav sampoorna, Re is omitted in the ascent which utilizes a Shuddh Nishaad. A weak Dha in also ascent adds to its beauty. It is also recommended that Pa in its ascent be used less and that brings together the Ma and Dha in a joyous combination.

Vaadi - Ga

Samvaadi - Ni

Aaroh- S G M P D N S

Avroh  -S n D P M G R S

The nuances of the Raag are explained here :

Khamaj is commonly used for lighter forms like ghazals and bhajans as well.

M.S. Subbalakshmi with daughter Radha Vishwananth brings out the beauty of Khamaj in this bhajan

Muraliya ab kahe guman bhari  :

The Ghazal King Mehdi Hassan takes ghazal into the Khamaj zone with his very popular- “mohabbat karne waale kam na honge” in this vintage video

Khamaj Thumris

Thumris are a light semi classical form of Hindustani music, the shorter musical presentations  based on ragas, as compared to the Khayal which is a more elaborate presentation that slowly unfolds. The words usually talk of love and a reference to the Lord Krishna is a common feature. Thumris are commonly sung in Pilu, Bhairavi, Pahadi and of course Khamaj.

This blog talks in detail about one interesting aspect of thumris- how its singing flitted from gender to gender due to changing social norms and audience tastes. 

There’s a treasure trove of Thumris in Khamaj out there and one of the major reasons for the delay in posting this one has been. Choosing which ones to post and which ones to leave out has been the most difficult tasks. I classify them here as sung by male& female singers and you can decide which gender scores.

The ladies, first…

• Balam chedo mat jao, sings MissIndubala in this short clip. Indubala was a renowed artist who also was the official court musician of the King of Mysore

• Siddheshwari Devi- one of the greatest names in light Hindustani singing says Jao balam nahi bolun  

• And Roshnara Begum continues the sentiment with a  Jaotose na bolun

• Begum Akhtar  sings a Dadra

• Iqbal Bano,well known for ghazals, also sang some beautiful thumris like this one– kahe sataye mohe saawariya

• Prabha Atre , the  swarayogini with the very popular Khamaj piece, Kaun gali gayo shyam

• And this one is special because it is not just one but two great performers teaming up for this one Shobha Gurtu and Girija Devi ask- Najuk baiyan kyun marori Shaya

• Young and very talented Kaushiki Chakraborty , keeps the tradition alive for us even in the modern times with this personal favorite- kaahe karat mose

 Here's the YouTube playlist:

The gentlemen are up next :

• Starting with none other than  Bade Ghulam Ali Khan – Paniya bharan kaise jaaon 

• Ustad Faiyaz Khan - balam pardes na jaio, delightful to put it mildly

• Ab jao kadar nahi bolo , sings Ali Baksh Zahoor 

• And the same thumri sung by Bade Amanat Ali Kasuri, which I like even better

• Mehdi Hassan is singing a thumri and not a ghazal- Chanda re jaa re

• Ustad Amir Khan creates magic with Piya Ke Aavan ki na sunat khabariya

• Ajoy Chakraborty ‘s Koyaliya kook sunawe

• Barkat Ali Khan – Dekhe bina bechain

• Salmat Ali Khan of Sham Churasi gharana with son Sharafat Ali Khan sings -Nadiya kinare mora gaon…

And the YouTube playlist of the male singers :

The instrumental version of a Khamaj thumri with Pannalal Ghosh’s bansuri

There’s a long list of Khamaj songs in films. RD Burman for example used it for two songs in Amar prem.

But here is a gem, Bidhir Badhon written and composed by none other than Rabindranath Tagore and sung without any accompanying instruments by Kishore Kumar for Satayajit Ray’s Ghare Bare

And Salil da’s  O Sajna barkha bhaar aayi has been a favorite for as long as I can remember- this Bengali version makes it sound even sweeter…

And finally who would expect to find a beautiful Thumri in a film which is best remembered for its hero singlehandedly uprooting a hand pump with his bare hands

“Look”, he shouted, suddenly turning to us. “Have you seen a more exasperating and cunning Raag? I have spent fifty years trying to master it and still it eludes me! Today I was sure I would finally learn. But it smiles and goes away! It is a whore, whom all can love and enjoy and none possess! It is a gift of the Gods!"[1]

Khamaj, indeed is slippery- whenever I thought I was done writing about it, it would reveal one more beautiful form, another beautiful facet of it. So this post stretched on for a couple of months. And though I am ending this here, I think I will be starting to work on Khamaj-II right away!

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[1] Vasudev Murthy, The Tanpura