Yaman is a raag of the first prahar of the night, the hours after sunset when the lamps are lit. It is also called Kalyan, the name of the thaat it belongs to, and in older writing Iman. Its swaras are the shuddh scale with one change, Ma raised to tivra, and its rules are few, which is why it is so often the first raag a student learns. It is also a raag that masters return to all their lives: its simplicity leaves everything to the way it is played.
Hear it
Set your Sa, turn on the tanpura, and listen to Yaman's aaroh, avaroh and pakad:
The aaroh begins below Sa, on mandra Ni, and climbs without touching Sa or Pa: Ni Re Ga, tivra Ma, Dha Ni, Sa. Neither is left out of the raag; they simply wait for the way down, where the avaroh walks through every swara home.
How it moves
Yaman's phrases begin low. Ni below Sa leads up to Re, and Re to Ga, and that little climb, Ni Re Ga, is the first thing anyone hears of the raag. Ga is its vadi, the swara it returns to and dwells on; Ni, its samvadi, answers it from the upper half.
Tivra Ma is never a resting place. It is passed through, from Ga up to Dha, or touched and turned back to Ga, and its brightness colours everything around it.
Pa comes back on the way down, and the descent through tivra Ma to Ga and Re is the second half of the pakad:
In the upper octave, Yaman's phrases reach taar Re and turn home:
Yaman is a raag of long, singing phrases, more meend than ornament: gentle glides from Ni to Re and from Ga down to Re, and swaras held until they glow.
Its hour
Yaman belongs to the first prahar of the night, from 6 to 9 in the evening. Its vadi, Ga, lies in the lower half of the saptak, which by Bhatkhande's observation places a raag between noon and midnight; and the evening is the hour of tivra Ma, of Yaman and its Kalyan kin.
On the bansuri
- S
- R
- G
- M
- P
- D
- N
- S
- Yaman sits well on an E bass, the flute most concert players use, or one near it, where mandra Ni is low enough to be warm and taar Re high enough to be easy.
- Its phrases start on mandra Ni: practise that low swara as a long note until it speaks softly, fully, without a push of breath.
- Tune tivra Ma carefully against the tanpura. It is easy to let it sag towards shuddh Ma as the breath tires, and then the raag goes flat with it.
- Two habits change the raag: starting the climb from Sa (Sa Re Ga) instead of from Ni below it, and leaning on Pa going up. Neither is forbidden, but both blur Yaman's character.
Look-alikes
Yaman has close relatives in its own thaat. The nearest is Yaman Kalyan, which adds a touch of shuddh Ma coming down, Ga Ma Ga: one swara, and the raag changes.
Shuddh Kalyan rises like Bhoopali, with neither Ma nor Ni, and lets them in only on the way down, in passing:
And Bhoopali itself, of the same evening and the same thaat, has no Ma and no Ni at all.
Practise it
A riyaz of Yaman, as long or as short as you like:
- Long notes on Ga and Ni, its vadi and samvadi, each against the tanpura until it is still.
- The aaroh and avaroh, slowly, then at the tempo you can play them cleanly.
- Paltas in Yaman's swaras, in threes.
- The pakad and the phrases above, each until it sounds like Yaman and nothing else.
- A short aalap, slowly, holding each swara where it rests.
All ten alankars in Yaman, to hear in your Sa →
Meend starts it with Aaroh–Avaroh, Pakad, Paltas in Yaman, Aalap and Bandish, 27 minutes a day, and listens as you play: each swara of the notation lit as it is played, the time kept, a lotus grown petal by petal.
Listen
Nearly every master of Hindustani music has recorded Yaman, so there is no shortage to learn from: on the bansuri, Hariprasad Chaurasia, and among singers, Ustad Amir Khan, whose slow, inward Yaman is one of the raag's great recordings.
Questions
Is Yaman a morning or an evening raag?
An evening raag: the first prahar of the night, from 6 to 9 pm.
Which thaat is Yaman in?
Kalyan, the thaat of tivra Ma. Yaman is often called Kalyan itself.
What is the pakad of Yaman?
Ni Re Ga Re, Ni Re Sa, Pa tivra-Ma Ga Re, Ni Re Sa, with Ni below Sa: hear it above.
Why is Yaman taught first?
Its swaras are all shuddh but one, its aaroh and avaroh are simple, and its phrases are clear. And yet it is never finished: masters play it all their lives.
What is the difference between Yaman and Yaman Kalyan?
Yaman Kalyan adds shuddh Ma, touched coming down (Ga Ma Ga); Yaman uses only tivra Ma.