Listening to Ustad Faiyaz Khan's renditions of Raagas Bhoopali and Poorvi - Part 2 of 4
- Anagha Bhat
- Jan 15
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 16
Image 02 - Ustad Fayaz Khan
Raaga Bhoopali
Among the many recordings of Ustad Faiyaz Khan that I have heard, Raaga Bhoopali has come to occupy a special place for me.
Perhaps because this recording makes it especially clear how much meaning and depth he could create with very little .
There have been several musicians known for their command over specific aspects - voice quality, breath control, rich content, alaap, laykaari, taankaari, or bhaav amongst several others. A few have brought several of these together. With Khan sahab,there was a sort of mastery over each one of these aspects .
In this piece, he creates meaning and depth largely with one or two musical elements, allowing the raaga and the bandish to take the lead rather than displaying everything available at his disposal.
The first time I heard this piece, I knew it was special. I listened again later, and realised that much of what is happening consists of seemingly simple statements.
I returned to it several more times, at different points in time, wondering if I had missed something. Each time, the experience only seemed to deepen.
The recording quality is poor, but even through the scratchiness one can sense the resonance , the sur-laagav and the space it creates.
Track 1
Track 2
(Track 2 is a better-quality recording, though it contains only the khayal portion.
It seems to be the same performance as Track 1, but at a different pitch. While Khan sahab is commonly said to have sung in C# 1 , his recordings circulate in B, A# and other pitches as well. With archival material like this, it’s hard to know what the original pitch might have been )
This is a roughly twenty one minute track, consisting of a nom-tom alaap followed by a vilambit khayal, “Eri aaj bhayilwa”, in Ektaal.
The first thing that strikes one is the robustness, tunefulness, and intensity of Khan sahab’s sur. Very early on, he establishes a majestic Bhoopali.
The sense of expanse is repeatedly created through long, meend-like avarohi movements.
As Pandit Shrikrishna Babanrao Haldankar notes in his writing 2 that there is a certain boj, or weight, that Khan sahab maintains throughout ,through the depth of his voice, and through the use of longer, more spaced out statements.
Around 3.07 min, the signature Pa - Ga phrase is introduced with great intensity.
By about 5.18 min, one hears subtle movements using Pa- Ga and Dha Pa Ga phrases, always anchored firmly to Sa.
Throughout the alaap, there are long, meend-like statements that create a broad sense of space and add to the majestic quality.
Around 9.10 min, gamak-laden phrases appear. This brings to mind Pandit Babanrao ji’s observation that a taan with gamak, as it is usually heard, gives the experience of a two- dimensional wave. Khan sahab’s taans, he writes, appear three-dimensional , perhaps due to the resonance emerging from the kharaj .
The vilambit khayal begins around 11.16 min, with an interesting mukhda built around Ga–Re–Sa–Dhạ–Pạ–Pa–Ga, creating especially beautiful aamads each time.
Throughout the presentation, one hears little bol-banav, modulation, or pukaar or laykaari. Instead, there is a predominance of meend-like, straightforward, sapaat movements, woven carefully into the larger fabric.
Further on, interesting bol taans appear, often using clustered words , sometimes consonants in the aroha and vowels in the avaroha, and at other times consonants throughout, again, largely sapaat taans, perhaps from a Gwalior influence.
By the end, it feels like receiving something precious and invaluable, not through excess or display, but through an almost disarming simplicity.
Raaga Poorvi
Track 3
This fifteen-minute recording consists only of the opening section of a nom-tom alaap. And yet, listening to it, I find it hard to think of a single thing Khan sahab leaves unexplored here. It truly is extraordinary for its density of musical thought and expression.
From the very beginning, there is an arresting presence of Sa.
Everything seems to emerge from it and return to it like waves of different phrases rising and dissolving back into Sa again and again.
The raaga’s personality emerges through an intensely focused and deliberate unfolding of each new phrase. The long sweeping movements from Ma’ to Mạ’ are particularly striking.
Until nearly 6.30 min, much of the exploration rests on the Mạ’ -Sa phrase alone .
Even the abstract nom-tom syllables are used to create meaning .
One hears the full spectrum of vocal dynamic , subtle, restrained, expansive, forceful, often within the span of a single phrase.
An entire musical tapestry is created through swar-uchhār alone.
The shuddh Ma emerges with particular impact, appearing to gently peek around 7.40 min.
The recording is abundant with both intricate, delicate movements and bold, assertive ones.
What is remarkable is how the same phrases recur with different intonations and intentions. The phrase re–ga–re–ma–ga at around 10.23 min, for instance, is shaped quite differently from its earlier occurrences.
At a certain point, I found myself giving up on marking timestamps altogether.
Almost every moment here feels significant, nothing seems wasted.
No phrase, no sur passes without seeming to come under Khan sahab’s careful consideration.
This track stands as a powerful example of how he internalised the technicalities fully and then moved beyond it, allowing something deeply instinctive and spontaneous to emerge. There is nothing that feels pre-planned and yet the flow is uninterrupted.
There exists another, slightly longer recording of Poorvi in the archive, where one can hear him coughing at times.
As Kumar Prasad Mukherjee ji has pointed out in one of his lectures, the recordings we have may capture barely ten percent of what Khan sahab was capable of, largely because he was recorded much later in life, often when he was already unwell.
Listening to a piece like this, one cannot help but imagine what it must have been like to listen to him at his peak and in-person.
Here is a list of References.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkZ4sT-CC-I&pp=ygUbYXNob2sgcmFuYWRlIG9uIGZhaXlheiBraGFu
Haldankar, Srikrishna. Aesthetics of Agra and Jaipur Traditions. Popular Prakashan, 2001
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