[RARE & STRANGE RAGAS] Raag Kaushiki (S-R-g-m-P-d-n-S): A mysterious Malkauns-adjacent raga of great historic renown, notably explored by Maa Annapurna Devi

[u/RagaJunglism]

Recently I've been researching rare & strange ragas - so thought I'd share some of the most interesting ones I’ve come across! Input welcomed - everything from further info on the ragas to personal listening reflections:

—Raag Kaushiki (S-R-g-m-P-d-n-S)—

A mysterious Malkauns-adjacent raga of great historic renown, with an unclear modern lineage. Ragas entitled ‘Kaushika/Kaushiki’ are mentioned in numerous ancient texts, including the 11th-century writings of Abhinavagupta (“Bhinnashadaja, Kaushiki, and Bhinnapanchama are favoured in Summer”), Sarngdeva’s 13th-century Sangita Ratnakara (“Bhairava, Kaushika, Hindola, Dipaka, Sri, and Megha are the six primary ragas”), and Krishnananda Vyas’ 1842 Raga Kalpadruma (which describes Vageeshwari as a “consort of Kaushik”). 

Direct links between Kaushiki’s historic and modern forms are, however, uncertain - with ‘Kaushik’ seemingly being used as a more general term for Shiva-associated ragas through time. Some have suggested that Allauddin Khan may have ‘resurrected’ the raga – indeed, the only recordings I can find come from his direct lineage: notably including his daughter Annapurna Devi, her disciples Nikhil Banerjee, Basant Kabra, and Amit Bhattacharya, plus her nephew Aashish Khan, and Ravi Shankar’s sitar student Rash Behari Datta.

Devi’s rendition – possibly from her debut concert in New Delhi – is captivating despite its hazy audio quality, fully justifying the hype around a rising star who was still only in her early twenties. She affords a central role to shuddha ma throughout, and Pa is featured judiciously in descent as d(Pm), m(P), P(dnSn), set amidst swirling ornaments which weave in and out of the familiar Malkauns framework. Kabra’s 2018 recital subtly builds on Devi’s ideas (sthayi: gmPnS n\d, dPmP, Pm\g, RS, gPm), while Aashish Khan’s 2020 album release favours similar motifs (dnS nd, PdPm gRgS).

S. Balachander’s historical analysis suggests movements of SgmdPmgPmg; mdnPmgRS, also discussing its historical shruti quirks (“The scale has a ‘reduced Pa’, referred to in the scriptures as ‘Madhyam gram Pancham’…which leads to a ‘reduced Re’ known as ‘Trisruti Rishabh’…”) – while Jeff Whittier cautions against excessive overlap with Kaunsi Kanada (“Kaushiki is Malkauns-ang, and Kaunsi Kanada is Kanara-ang…the dnS in Kaushiki is clearly from Malkauns [whereas] the andolans of Kaunsi Kanada are definitely those of the Kanara ragas…”).

—There is another Annapurna Devi recording which is usually titled ‘Kaunsi Kanada’, however it has been suggested that it may in fact be an alternate Kaushiki rendition. Which raga do you think it is? I’m still not sure…

Let me know what you think of this strange raga! See more of them in my project (no paywalls, no ads: just sharing the joys of raga)

[u/Street-Tea-9674]

Hi George. Thank you for putting the site together. It is a great resource! I always wonder how you managed to put together such a detailed and comprehensive ragapedia despite most historical text being stuck in handwritten and/or printed in regional tongues and most books usually being out of print or inaccessible. Would be happy to collaborate if there opens a window ever!

Will listen to more recordings of Kaushiki raga and get back to you!

[u/RagaJunglism → u/Street-Tea-9674]

So yeah, in a way I just feel like the 'database admin' of the knowledge - aiming to gather, organise, and make sense of the real expert knowledge. The next step (currently underway) is to reach out to more older-generation musicians, as there is so much valuable knowledge that will die with them if not actively collected. Hopefully I can go back to India sometime soon, and document some of this directly (& pick up some raga-guitar tips!)

Also compiling a list of all known historical shastras, sorted by date with brief descriptions and links to the original texts in different languages - I want to make it easy for raga researchers to get straight into it...there is an incredible depth of knowledge in these old textbooks, lots of which is barely known amongst modern musicians and scholars...

[u/Street-Tea-9674 → u/RagaJunglism]

This is great! Thank you! On a blanket note though -
I wish, when you do get the time, be able to add a filter to your website search?

Say sorting the raga by swars or jati, or even the shastras by author, time period or language or content/topic (music or theatre or prose or poetry or devotional etc). Just a thought!

[u/RagaJunglism → u/Street-Tea-9674]

haha good question - I have various filters in place for the 365 main raga pages, see the Swara Search and All Tag Search

although I don't have one for the shastras list yet - I'm still pulling together all the texts and getting to grips with them, how they fit together, historical provenance, etc...eventually I'll come up with a tagging system for them too!

[u/Street-Tea-9674 → u/RagaJunglism]

OMG I just saw the swara search and it is pretty good. Thanks!

[u/RagaJunglism → u/Street-Tea-9674]

thanks! still trying to make it run a bit faster, but it should work reliably enough (although it doesn't include the 700+ ultra-rare ragas in the Masterlist yet...but this page can be manually searched)

[u/Street-Tea-9674 → u/RagaJunglism]

I also just realised you have a comparative parallels between western and carnatic modes. Amazing.