Bahar is amongst the popular seasonal ragas of Hindustani music. The word "Bahar" is of Perso-Arabic origin, and connotes flowering. The raga itself could also be of middle-eastern inspiration. Appropriately, the raga is associated with spring. One view of the time-association is that the raga can be performed at any time of day or night during the spring season. Another view suggests that it is ideally performed after mid-night. A third view is that it can be performed at any time during the spring season, after the sun has crossed the zenith.
Contemporary practice tends to reserve this raga for performance well after sunset during the months of February and March. This seems reasonable because Bahar is a member of the Kanada family, with its descent being identical to Darbari (n P / g M R S), and ragas of this family are generally performed closer to midnight than to sunset.
The raga is pentatonic in the ascent, and heptatonic in the descent. It deploys the komal [flat] Ga, the Shuddha [natural] Ni in the ascent, and the Komal [flat] Ni in the descent. Great musicians have taken an occasional liberty with the raga by a fleeting use of the Shuddha [natural] Ga in lieu of the komal [flat] Ga. The performing tradition describes such permissible, though forbidden, tones as Vivadi [adversarial] tones, and requires a musician to take a hard, dispassionate, look at himself before attempting such usage. The twin-Ni usage is the melodic significator of the joy and euphoria inherent in the raga, a feature this raga shares with the Malhar group of ragas associated with the rainy season, also signifying nature rejuvenating itself.
The primary dominant tone [Vadi] of this raga is Ma, and the secondary dominant [Samvadi] is Sa. The raga's centre of melodic gravity is in the upper tetrachord, with its melodic personality being expressed most clearly in ascending melodic motion.
The bare scale of this raga has little unique musical meaning, and is, therefore, required to be documented in a manner that incorporates its zigzag phrasing pattern.
Scale:
Ascent: S M P g M n D N S'
Descent: R' N S' D n P M P g M R S
Chalan: [Skeletal phraseology]
R N. S M/ M M P g M / n P M P g M/ P g M n D n P/ g M n D N S' [or] g M D - N S'/ g' M' R' S'/ R' N S' D n P/ n n P M P g M/ P g M R S
The melodic signature of the raga [Pakar]: g M n D N S'.
Bahar has been successfully combined with non-seasonal ragas to create several compound ragas, which are also performed during the spring season because of the Bahar flavour in them. Among the popular Bahar compounds are Basant-Bahar, Adana-Bahar, Bageshri-Bahar, Hindol-Bahar, and Bhairav-Bahar. Except for Basant-Bahar, which is generally forged by dovetailing the Bahar ascent to the Basant descent, most other Bahar compounds tend to be complex blends, and demand a high level of musicianship.
A significant facet of Bahar is its limited improvisational potential. In effect, the raga has only four basic phrases: S-M/ g-M-n-D-N-S'/ n-P-M / P-g-M-R-S as building blocks for melody. This is why scholars have often described Bahar as a song, rather than a raga. And, yet, several gharanas have invested their creative energies in developing it as a raga, and with great success. Its limitations must, however, expose themselves in its rendition. Bada Khayal renditions in Bahar, if attempted, tend to be considerably shorter than in the major ragas. In addition, the need to create an absorbing musical experience with Bahar almost always deprives the rendition of the systematic melodic progression that characterises Khayal vocalism.
Deepak S. Raja
(c) India Archive Music, New York, producers of the finest recordings of Raga Bahar.
