Raga Asavari or Asawari

 

Raga Asavari is a Hindustani classical raga. It belongs to the Asavari thaat and is performed in the morning hours.

In pre-Bhatkhande days this Asavari used the Komal Rishab instead of Shuddh Rishab. When Bhatkhandeji created the thaat process, he changed that Asavari's Komal Rishab to Shuddha Rishab but the name remained the same. From that time the old or real 'Asavari' has been called the Komal Rishabh Asavari, and the new Shuddha Rishabh Asavari is simply called 'Asavari'.

Raga Asavari and Komal Rishabh Asavari also appears in the Sikh tradition from northern India and is part of the Sikh holy scripture called Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Sikh Gurus Sri Guru Ramdas Ji and Sri Guru Arjun Dev Ji used these ragas. The Raga Komal Rishabh Asavari appears as 'Raga Asavari Sudhang' in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

Rag Asawari is considered to be the fundamental rag in Asawari that.  There are several film songs in Asavari; one common one is "Mujhe Gale Se Laga Lo Bahut Udas Hun Main ".  Asavari is a morning rag.  It is Audav - Sampurna due to the omission of the Ga and Ni in the ascending structure.  For those who still adhere to the Vadi/ Samvadi theory, it has been suggested that the vadi is Dha and the samvadi is Ga.

Asavari and its clones Jaunpuri and Dev Gandhar belong to late morning. The original version of Asavari used all four komal swaras – much like Bhairavi. It then ceded popularity to the modern version of Asavari, which uses shudh ‘re’ but komal ‘ga’, ‘dha’ and ‘ni’. When Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande grouped north Indian ragas into ten thaats, he chose Asavari (with shudh ‘re’) as the key raga of the thaat named after it. The original Asavari is now known as ‘Komal Rishabh Asavari’. The modern Asavari in turn ceded popularity to Jaunpuri, which differs from it only in using the seventh note ‘ni’ in ascending movement. Interestingly, with the shifting of people’s preference from shudh ‘re’ Asavari to Jaunpuri, komal ‘re’ Asavari has made a comeback of sorts. Most of the recordings labeled simply Asavari are in komal ‘re’ Asavari. Dev Gandhar also uses shudh ‘ga’ sparingly in addition to the Komal one. The three ragas sound very similar and some experts on music, including Pandit Omkarnath Thakur, do not consider Asavari and Jaunpuri to be different ragas.

Hindi Songs in Raga Asavari

1)Aankhon mein teri (Film : Om Shanti Om)

2) Mujhe Gale Se Laga Lo Bahut Udas Hun Main (Film - Aaj Aur Kal)

3) Piya Te Kaha (Film - Toofan Aur Diya)

4) Chale Jana Nahin Naina Milake (Film - Badi Bahen)

5) Jadoo Teri Nazar, Khusboo Tera Badan (Film - Darr)

6) Abhi Mujh Mein Kahin (Film : Agneepath (2012))

7) Dil deewana bin sajna ke (Film : Maine Pyar Kiya)

8) Hume aur jeene ki chahat na hoti (Film : Agar Tum Na Hote )

9) Lo Aa Gayi Unki Yaad (Film : Do Badan)

10) Sajan re jhoot mat bolo (Film : Teesri Kasam)

11) Silsila Ye Chaahat Ka (Film : Devdas (2002))

12) Sun sahiba sun (Film : Ram Teri Ganga Maili)

Marathi Songs in Raga Asavari

1) Avaghe Garje Pandharpur

2) Kay vadhin me ti Sumati 

3) Tirth Vithhal Kshetra Vitthal 

4) Prembhave jiv jagi ya

5) Dur arta sang kuni chedili 

6) Me samju tari kay bhule

7) Jai paratoni bala