Raga Durga
“I’ll just water the banana trees,” I thought as I put on my earphones and selected a recording of Raga Durga to listen to while heading into the backyard after a long day of computer work. It was about 5pm and the sun was still pouring its golden nectar onto the trees. I live in Florida so we have all kinds of trees, most of which I still don’t know the names of. I planted the banana trees in the backyard shortly after moving here last summer. They were just 2 little trees when I bought them. Now they look like 6 little trees! Neither of the original, mother, trees have grown very tall yet but they have both given birth to several “pups” growing right beside them! Although the pups look like separate trees, a little Google research tells me they are actually the same tree connected to their mother trees at the roots.
Raga Durga is a popular raga in North Indian, or Hindustani, Classical Music named for the Goddess as Durga, the Supreme Mother. The word “durga” in Sanskrit can itself be translated as “fortress”. In English, “fortress” can be translated as a stronghold that is unassailable, which is perhaps another way to describe the power of Goddess Durga: She who cannot be defeated.
As I stood in my yard, watering the banana trees and listening to Raga Durga interpreted by vocalist Vidushi Veena Sahasrabuddhe, it felt like magic as the music in my ears began to mirror the vision in my eyes: sunlight and water mixing with a little wind and moving through the leaves of the trees. I began to feel more connected to the banana trees right in front of me that I was watering but also to trees further away, to all the other plants and flowers in the yard, to the grass, the hibiscus, the unknown bushes. It was as if Sahasrabuddhe’s voice, and the gentle play of the tabla accompanying her, were describing for me what the plants themselves were feeling in that moment. How she held the notes and how she let them go, how the tabla underlined the rhythmic pulse of all that was occurring; the raga landed in my ears the way the water and sunlight seemed to land on the plants: transient but intentional, and most of all, nourishing.
Raga Durga uses just five notes, or svara, to evoke its exquisite energy. It is fascinating to me how this raga, as with every raga that is not of Sapta Svara (all seven natural notes), does not feel like anything is missing from its expressive palate even though one note (and many semi-tones and micro-tones) are intentionally “missing”. The pentatonic scale of Raga Durga consists of all shudh, or natural, notes: Sa, Re, Ma, Pa, and Dha. It is the third and seventh notes of the Saptak, Ga (or Gandhar) and Ni (or Nishad), that are not directly heard in Raga Durga. And yet, perhaps the completeness of the pentatonic scale is like the night sky: Ga and Ni are missing but their absence is not one of an incomplete presence - they are “there”, still shining without being directly visible, like the sun behind the stars. I have heard the rasa, or the aesthetic flavor, of Raga Durga to be considered “veeram” or heroic, and according to some also as “shringarah" or romantic. Perhaps the flavor of this raga for me is a bit of both at the same time. It also evokes the taste of confidence, positive motivation, and loving connection.
Suffice to say that while listening to Raga Durga (in several versions following the first beautiful vocal recording of Sahasrabuddhe) I ended up doing yard work in my backyard for 3 hours non-stop without feeling the slightest fatigue and actually enjoying every minute. After watering the mother and pup banana trees, which was all I had set out to do at the start, I found myself guided intuitively to then tend to the compost bins, mix compost with soil, move regenerated soil from one part of the yard to another, plant some vegetables and flowers with seeds that had otherwise been just gathering dust in the garage. I even created a new bed for wildflowers and placed seashells collected from the beach to frame the new wildflower area in our yard.
Raga Durga helped me feel plugged into the creative spirit of the Earth herself, calling me to engage, get my hands in the dirt, tend to the soil, plant seeds, support Nature to grow in all Her glory. The sun had set by the time I finished gardening and the night sky was full of stars!
Reflections from my studies in “Ragas in Shastriya Sangeet and Modern Music” with Kanniks Kannikeswaran at the Hindu University of America
