21 Song Salute to the Great Lata Mangeshkar
The chalan of Patadeep is -‘ni sa ga ma pa ni sa, sa ni dha pa ma ga re sa’.
Advancing listeners will notice that Bheempalas focuses on shuddha madhyam and in case of Patadeep, that focus shifts from shuddha madhyam to the pancham.
What is used is the pancham - komal gandhaar sangati which is a very rare combination. We know that we always use the shadja - madhyam, shadja - pancham combinations to make pairing of notes to expand the raga however, in this case if you observe - the relation between the pancham and komal gandhaar is shadja-gandhaar.
This is one raga where shadja - gandhaar pairing is used very effectively and you see three pairs using the same combination - you have the ‘sa-ga’ combination, and you find same relation between the pa-ni as well as between the ni- komal gandhaar. There is a beautiful use of the ‘sa ga, sa ga, sa ga’ movement.
The ‘ni sa ga ma pa ni sa’ remains as is, and then in the nishad – gandhaar pairing the ‘sa’ comes with the touch of ‘re’ and the gandhaar comes with the touch of madhyam. The rishabh is elongated in the avroha just like in Bheempalas ‘ni sa ga ga re sa re sa’. In raga Bheempalas you would rest on the madhyam, which is avoided here in raga Patadeep. Instead what happens is the ‘pa’ gets the prominence and is the major resting place while rendering the raga - ‘pa ga, ma pa, pa ga, re sa re sa, ni, ni sa’.
Nishad also has its own prominence here - ‘ga ma pa dha pa, ma pa dha’. You should notice the jump to the shuddha nishad from pancham. ‘ga ma pa ni, ni ni dha pa’. There is so much beauty in this raga and internalising this melody will help you really experience raga Patadeep to the fullest.
Patadeep has been used very effectively by S. D. Burman for one of his songs, wonderfully rendered by Lata Mangeshkar - the song is “Megha chhaye aadhi raat….”. Advancing listeners of Hindustani Classical Music should note how pancham- komal gandhaar combination is very effectively used in this song, and how it becomes even more wonderful in the antara as it takes off from the komal gandhaar and rests beautifully on the shuddha nishad.
Watch a beautiful bandish on the bansuri in the full video here - Raga Parichay : Patadeep
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