Sitar Samrat Nikhil Banerjee: Raga Sindhura: Ustad Zakir Hussain

Raga Sindhura : Pandit Nikhil Banerjee
Zakir Hussain
Gat in Sitarrkhani Taal 4+4+4+4 29:03
India’s Maestro of Melody
Produced by Shefali Nag under the Series:
India's maestro of Melody: Live Concert Volume 5.

Raga Sindhura
Known in earlier times as Saindhavi, this raga has cleaved a trail going back to the Sangeeta Ratnakara of Sarangdeva (13th C) where it was considered a desi raga (as opposed to margi), suggestive of its roots in the folk traditions of the land.  
Saindhavi is in circulation in Carnatic music although, as Subbarao notes in his Raganidhi, it is the Carnatic Raga Salaga Bhairavi that more resembles the contemporary Hindustani Sindhura. Despite its chronological seniority, the lakshanas of Raga Sindhura have been subsumed under the Kafi framework. Let us examine its key features.
S R M P, [PDMP] (M)g,
R M g R SS R M P D n D M P D S”
M P N, N S”, R” g” R” S”S”,
R” n D P, n P (M)g, R M P (M)g R, S
The gandhar is varjit in arohi passages. The approach to S” takes two pathways: one drops nishad as in M P D S”, the other adopts the shuddha nishad-laden strip M P N, N S”. The gandhar becomes deergha on occasion in avarohi prayogas. Sindhura being an uttaranga-pradhana raga, a judicious elongation of dhaivat can be put to good effect. These are the primary points of distinction with Kafi.


Nikhil Banerjee (Bangla: নিখিল ব্যানার্জী) (14 October 1931–27 January 1986) is one of India's most prominent sitar players of the second half of the 20th Century. He never achieved the glamour of Vilayat Khan or his gurubhai Ravi Shankar, but Nikhil Banerjee did win great critical acclaim and the hearts of many music lovers. He is remembered as a musician's musician.
Along with Ravi Shankar, Vasant Rai, and Ali Akbar Khan, he was trained by "Baba" Ustad Allauddin Khan of the Maihar gharana (school).

Many accomplished sitar players of India continue to listen to Nihil as their most favorite sitar players. Very few can replicate his natural flow with the instrument.

Raga Sindhura is an evening melody, with origins from the Kafi Thaat. It is unique characteristic of this Raga that the melodic movements are confined to the upper octave.