Recorded by Darbar in 2014, on location in Bangalore, India.

Musicians:
- Pravin Godkhindi (bansuri)

Raag Madhuvanti; Thaat: Todi; Samay: Late Afternoon

Experimentally-inclined flautist Pravin Godkhindi returns to Hindustani music’s ancient roots in the natural world, performing a solo rendition of Madhuvanti (‘honey’).

Pravin Godkhindi is an eclectic classical flautist, performing Hindustani music on the bansuri. He studied under his father Venkatesh Godkhindi, an exponent of the Kirana gharana, as well as Carnatic mridangist Anoor Anantha Krishna Sharma. He incorporates Carnatic rhythm into his playing, and in 2015 became the first to perform Indian classical music on the 8-foot-long contrabass flute.

Madhuvanti is a lilting, romantic raga, often played at medium to fast tempos. It is traditionally associated with sringar [romantic love], and to many the raga evokes a sweet sound (‘madhu’ translates literally to ‘honey’). It uses Todi thaat, ascending with the swaras SgMPNS and descending with SNDPMgRS. Pa and Sa are the vadi and samvadi [king and queen notes]. It was formerly known as Raag Ambika, has been widely borrowed into Carnatic music in recent times. Raag Multani is the closest cousin, produced by substituting Re and Dha for their komal [flattened] variants. It remains widely popular in classical and film music.

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