Wednesday 19 January 2011

My Take : Huns Dhun & displacement

This is a great video I found on You Tube - which depicts of the forced repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan. Its also one of my favourite taranas from Rāga Hamsadhwani - brilliantly done by the Mekaal Hasan band.


I was stunned by the fact that an experience of displacement in North-West Pakistan could be so well captured by a Rāga of south Indian origin.


Hamsadhwani is a janya (derivative) rāga of Shankarabharaam, the 29th Melakarta Rāga. It has a pentatonic scale and doesn't have the Madhyamam (mā) and Dhaivatam (dhā).


I first heard the rāga at the Dover Lane music conference in Kolkata. It was the concert-closer (quite appropriate since it is intended for the second quarter of the night) and it stayed with me.


Ritwik Ghatak's Meghe Dhaka Tara  also has a very soulful rendition of this rāga by A Kanan. In Hindustani classical music (my apologies for making such a brouhaha of the north-south divide), Hamsadhwani is associated to the Bilalwal thāt.


Here's my lastest encounter with Hamsadhwani...


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