Raags Performed:
- Raag Poorvi
Musicians :
- Jyoti Hegde (rudra veena)
- Surdarshan Chana (jori)
- Debipriya Sircar (tanpura)

At the age of 12, when distractions grapple with the mind ripe with a thousand curiosities, Jyoti Hegde was pining to learn the rudra veena. Considered the king of Indian instruments, a mythical creation of Lord Shiva (inspired by his consort Parvati’s hand over her breasts in a reposeful posture), the bulky rudra veena poses a huge challenge to any musician. Hegde’s undeterred gumption and immersed dedication has put her on top as the only female musician in India who can handle this ancient, masculine instrument with elan.

In this video from the ninth Darbar festival, the acclaimed rudra veena player Jyoti Hegde presents the rare raga Poorvi. A twilight raga with deep undercurrents of pathos and repose, Poorvi has a reclusive personality and remains a difficult to unfurl. But Hegde’s immersive treatment of the melody brings out its emotions, tugging at the heart strings with haunting and deferential pathos that is typical of a sound treatment of this rarely performed raga.

Hegde’s halcyon smile is a constant fixture and the tranquil eyes open and close to the cues of the tonal sentences. Her hands gripping the cumbrous instrument positioned snugly over her shoulder and knee makes the act look deceitfully effortless whereas in reality, the strength, skill and tenacity required to handle the rudra veena with such a calm composure can be fiendishly monumental.

Stretching and bending the notes, she lays out the key structure of the raga in patient phrases. As she traverses from the alap to jod, the swift, precise movements of her right hand and the riveting left hand structure the tonal sentences over a neat, linear pulse ending in ecstatic waves.

Filling up the spaces with the strum of the chikari (onomatopoeic word denoting the top-most string on the veena strummed to maintain pulse and play the jhalla), she adds textures to this part and carves out rotund oscillation between the notes.

She concludes this piece with a madhyalay composition in Sool taal.

Surdarshan Chana accompanies her on the Jori, another rare instrument that owes its origins to its classical antecedent, pakhawaj – a percussion instrument that was used to accompany dhrupad. The jori was created by splitting the pakhawaj into two drums by the 5th Sikh saint Guru Arjan Dev (1563-1606) when kirtans (spiritual hymns) were transforming from classical to more of a devotional style. Hegde’s madhyalay composition is supported beautifully by Chana. The stately sound of the jori is calibrated to the dense weave of the veena’s sound and he positions his improvisations in majestic moments throughout the recital making the presentation compact.

Poorvi is derived from its eponymous parent scale Poorvi thaat. Its jati is sampurna-sampurna vakra, that is, it uses all notes in the ascent and descent with a meandering gait in the latter. The dominant note or vadi swar is Ga (3rd) and the samvadi swar or sub-dominant note is Ni (7th). It is a twilight raga that conveys emotions of deep pathos. Poorvi deploys komal Re and Dha (flat 2nd and 6th) and both shudh and teevra Ma (pure and sharp 4th). Its arohana and avarohana are as follows:

S r G M P d N S'

S' N d P ; M G m G r S