Kafi (raga)
| Hindustani classical music |
|---|
| Concepts |
| Genres |
| Thaats |
The raga Kafi is an important raga of the Hindustani classical music.
Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande’s classification of the Ragas has ten different thaats(logical group consisting of various closely related ragas) and KAFI thaat is one of them. KAFI, the raga, is the principal one in KAFI thaat and essentially describes the nature of the thaat. Kafi is not quite an ancient raga. According to Pandit Bhatkhande the name of the raga first appears in Raga Tarangini of Lochana Pandit who lived in the Mithila district around 15th Century.
Raga Kafi has direct lineage with the folk music of India. Various folk musics(Tappa, Hori, Dadra, Kirtan, devotional songs) from different parts of India are continuously being composed in this raga for ages.
Nowadays, quite a few variations of Kafi exists. Contamination with 'vivadi' swaras are judiciously being used to increase the listening pleasure. This sort of 'forced' contamination has given rise to Mishra Kafi. Hence, a 'pure' form of Kafi is seldom heard in recent performances.
Description(Parichay)
Kafi is a sampoorna-sampoorna or heptatonic raga, with 'komal'(soft) Gandhar(g) and Nishad(n).
SRgMPDnS
SnDPMgRS
Vadi & Samavadi
Pacham(P) is the vadi swara and Shadaj(S) is the samvadi swara.
A typical improvisation of Kafi starts as nD,PmgR *, SS RR gg mm P, P m g R, g m P g - R.
The phrases below and termination in R are characteristic of the raga. S R g M P D n. S, RgMP, M P D (M)g R
The typical chalan of the raga can be illustrated as follows
S R R g g M M P, P M P (M)g R, n D n P D M P (M)g R. M P D n D P, n P (M)g R, g R S n' D' n' S.
Organization & Relationships
Various distinguished ragas like Bhimpalasi, Bageshree are associated with this raga. Few important tributaries of this raga are Sindhura, Barwa, Neelambari and Piloo.
Behavior
Samay(Time)
Evening and the first part of Night.
Seasonality
The raga is suitable to be performed in any season.
The principal rasa for this raga is shringar.
Historical Information
Origins
Important recordings
References
1.Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati and his concise commentary, A Comparative Study of Some of the Leading Music Systems of the 15th, 16, 17th, & 18th Centuries by Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande.
External links
- [[Amitava Chakraborty (talk)|Amitava Chakraborty]]'s A Brief Introduction to Indian Ragas [1]
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