Notating a Komal-Gandhar Avaroh in Jaunpuri
A first-year ASSEB student is preparing a written swaralipi submission for a practical exam. She has transcribed a khayal phrase in Raga Jaunpuri from her teacher's oral rendering: in the avaroh the phrase sounds as komal Gandhar, shuddha Madhyam, Pa, komal Dhaivat, komal Nishad, tar Shadaj. In her notebook she writes 'G M P D N S' with no underlines and no octave dots, places the whole phrase in the middle octave, and begins it on matra 9 of a 16-matra Teental cycle. For the murki that her teacher sings on the words 'sakhi', she writes four swaras in a single box under one matra. Her teacher marks three notational errors but also says, 'Notation can never capture everything I sang.' The student has an exam in two weeks and wants to know exactly what to fix and what to leave to oral memory.
1. Identify the three notational errors in the student's phrase and write the corrected Bhatkhande-style swaralipi for the avaroh. Explain each symbol you use.
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The three errors are: (1) direction - the teacher sang an avaroh, but the student wrote an ascending phrase; (2) komal swaras - Ga, Dha and Ni are komal in Jaunpuri and must be marked, usually by underlining in a handwritten Bhatkhande notebook or by lowercase letters in ASCII; (3) octave and vibhag marks - the tar Shadaj has no dot above it, and matra 9 of Teental is the start of the khali vibhag but is not marked with 0. A corrected ASCII form is:
0 | S˙ n D P M g R S |
Here S˙ is tar Sa, g, d and n are komal Ga, Dha and Ni, and 0 marks khali. The phrase should be barred so that matra 9 is the first matra of that vibhag. Jaunpuri's aroha is S R g M P D n S; its avaroha is S n D P M g R S. If the student meant to write the aroha, she must not label it avaroh. She should also show the matra span: four matras for the descent is a performance choice, not a fixed fact of the raga.
2. The student asks whether the murki should be written as four separate swaras in one matra. Advise her, giving at least two reasons why a literal notation may mislead a performer.
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She should not write the murki as four equal swaras in one matra. A murki is a fast ornament whose exact number of strokes, their durations and their microtonal inflections vary by gharana and even by performance. Writing four notes under one matra implies four equal divisions and a fixed order, which is not what the teacher sang. It also hides the fact that the ornament may begin before the beat or end after it. A better notation is to write the main swara or swaras and add a conventional ornament mark or a footnote: 'murki on sakhi, approximately four strokes, as taught'. The student should learn the murki by imitation and use notation only as a reminder. In the viva she can explain that swaralipi records skeletal pitch relations, not the full gamak.
3. In 100–150 words, discuss what the teacher's remark reveals about the relationship between swaralipi and oral transmission in Hindustani music.
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The remark captures a central tension: swaralipi is a prescriptive and descriptive aid, not a complete score. Bhatkhande's notation fixes scale degree, komal or teevra status, octave and matra position, which lets a composition travel across regions and schools. But Hindustani music's identity lies in meend, gamak, murki and the subtle intonation of shrutis, which resist exact graphic capture. Oral transmission also carries the authority of the guru and the freedom to adapt a phrase to a voice or a hall. A good exam answer should say that notation and orality are complementary: notation prevents gross errors and preserves text and structure, while the guru's singing supplies the life of the raga.