Photo by Santiago Gomez on Unsplash

KHAYAL

An Ever New Jaijaiwanti

Notes from a baithak by Ishwar Ghorpade

Recently, I came across a short clip where Arthur Rubenstein, speaking about the uniqueness of an artist, says, “an artist, in a way, must be alone, a world by himself.” I thought that’s true not only for artists, but also for music itself. You might have heard a raag being described as having a personality, its own quirks, and mannerisms. This anthropomorphization of a raag gives it the freedom to be a world by itself, which it very well is.

A raag is different from a song. A song is a bound composition, usually, but not always, created by one person, although there might be many accomplices who help with the composition. A song, once composed, is composed; it is done. A raag, on the other hand, is an example of collective continuous composition. It evolves as more artists come in contact with it.

Contrary to popular belief, there’s no right way to recite a raag, as a raag is what you make it to be. This is not to say that you have boundless freedom. The basic structural rules still apply, but you can choose to break them, as long as the listener can identify with the raag, see at least some of its quirks and mannerisms, if not all of them.

In this process of making and breaking rules, artists create a version of the raag…