Sohni

Sohni is a raga in Hindustani classical music in the Marwa thaat. It may be spelt Sohani, Sohini,Sohinee or even Shohini.It is an extremely melodious raga.

Tall, virgin, charming, her eyes like lotuses, ears clustered with celestial flowers, Sohini is a lovely form. She holds a lute and her songs are amorous

Rāga kalpa druma, p. 19[1]

Contents

Technical Description

The raga is of audav-shadav nature, i.e, it has five swaras (notes) in the arohana (ascent) and six in the avarohana. Rishabh (Re)is komal and Madhyam (Ma) is Tivra (denoted below by Re# and Ma#), while all other swaras are shuddha. Pancham (Pa) is not used.

Arohana: Sa Ga Ma# Dha Ni Sa.

Avarohana: Sa Ni Dha, Ga Ma# Dha Ga Ma# Ga Re# Sa.

Pakad: Sa Ni Dha, Ga Ma# Dha Ga Ma# Ga.

The vadi swara is Dha, and samvadi is Ga. The rishabh is weak, but Gandhar (Ga) is strong, unlike Marwa. It is an Uttaranga pradhan raga, with the higher notes on the saptak (octave) being used more frequently.

Samai (Time)

Raga Sohni is associated with very late night / pre-dawn, the last or eighth period of day, roughly from 3-6AM.

Further information

It is somewhat similar to Marwa and Puriya ragas in the same thaat[2], and also to Basant in the Poorvi thaat.

Important recordings

most probably the oldest recording is of Abdul Karim Khan from 1905

External links

References

  1. ^ Daniélou, Alain (1968). The Rāgas of northern Indian music. Barrie and Rockliff, London. pp. 334–334. ISBN 0214156893. 
  2. ^ Parrikar, Rajan (2002-02-18). "The Marwa Matrix" (in en). The South Asian Women's Forum. Archived from the original on 2009-12-16. http://www.webcitation.org/5m3sZjuk2. Retrieved 16 December 2009.