Indian Rāgas: Bhupāli & Mālkosh

I mention two rāgas, which are as distinct as water and fire, in the same breath — which kind of proves the point that inspite of their abstract, theoretical interchangeability of notes, rāgas can be acutely different.

If you have a piano and you start from the middle C, Bhupali plays out as

S R G P D S`

Which, if you’ve followed the post on conversion charts, will be identifiable as the major pentatonic scale (and Mohanam in Carnatic music)

The simplest of all, five notes of Bhupali

However, if you’re trying to play Bhupali without even having to look at the piano, there’s a shortcut:

Do you see it?

If you start from F#, the successive black keys in the standard piano will be the very notes of Bhupali. In fact, Bhupali represents the primordial five divisions of an octave, which many cultures, including ours, have developed independently.

Now, on the surface, Malkosh (Malkauns?) is nothing remotely similar. Whereas, Bhupali has all shuddha notes, Malkosh belongs to the Bhairavi thaat with no less than three komal notes

S g M d n S`

(The equivalent Raag in Carnatic music is Hindolam). But putting things in perspective, here’s Malkosh for you beginning from A#

It seems Malkosh uses the same notes as Bhupali, in a different order

Which is to say, if you keep moving over the black keys of a piano, you will either be playing Malkosh or Bhupali (or gibberish, but let’s stick to the plan here). How on earth can the same set of keys play two different raags?

Among other things, this proves, quite conclusively I suppose, that the exact same set of frequencies (literally, the same) can produce entirely different moods depending on minor rearrangements in sequence. For example, Bhupali moves about deftly, with emphasis on G and D.

Ascent: S R G P D S`

Descent: S`‿ D P ‿ G R S

The character ‘‿’ indicates a meer, which is a slow, roundabout way of moving from a note to another, touching numerous frequencies in between. A typical movement in Bhupali would sound like

G R S R G P D S` D P G R S D_ S

(the ‘_’ indicates lower octave). The movements do not stop for anything in between, there are no philosophic pauses or complicated acrobatics between notes, making Bhupali a favorite for beginners.

This one brushes through the notes of Bhupali, lazying through some of its typical movements.

A not so canonical example of Bhupali

Malkosh, on the other hand, has got senior written all over it. It’s grave, slow, hesitant in its movements, and sometimes, twisted like a rheumatic finger.

Ascent: n_ S g M d n S`

Descent: S` n d M g M g S

Whereas Malkosh is a midnight raag, Bhupali belongs to the evening. Malkosh spends most of its time in the lowest octave, spanning hours of vistaars in the leftmost parts of the Harmonium. Bhupali, however, has no such indulgences and is typically sung in short khayals. The two raagsa are kind of Siamese twins, separated only by the distance of a D# from an A#.

And canonical Malkosh; a very well known Bhajan