Bani Bhagat Sain Ji

Rag Dhanasari
Of the thirty-one principal rags in the Guru Granth Sahib, Rag Dhanasari, a musical mode, has been designated the tenth place in the sequence. The Bani of five Gurus and seven Bhagats is recorded under this rag from pages 660 to 695 of the Guru Granth Sahib. This includes fourteen Sabads each by Guru Nanak Sahib and Guru Ramdas Sahib, nine by Guru Amardas Sahib, sixty by Guru Arjan Sahib, four by Guru Teghbahadar Sahib, five each by Bhagat Kabir Ji and Bhagat Namdev Ji, three by Bhagat Ravidas Ji and one each by Bhagat Trilochan Ji, Bhagat Pipa Ji, Bhagat Dhanna Ji, and Bhagat Sain Ji. The well-known Bani ‘Arti’ revealed by Guru Nanak Sahib is also recorded in this rag. Besides this, more Sabads with similar gist, revealed by Bhagats, are also found in this rag, like:
nāmu tero ārtī majanu murāre. -Guru Granth Sahib 694.
dhūp dīp ghrit sāji ārtī. -Guru Granth Sahib 695.

‘Dhanasari’ is a melodious rag of the Hindustani musical tradition, originating from the northern region of modern India. It is mentioned as a prominent rag in Hindustani Music. In ancient musicology texts, the names of Dhanasari are given as Dhanasi, Dhanayasi, Dhanashri, etc. According to Prof. Piara Singh Padam, ‘Dhanasari’ was the name of a region in west Panjab, and this rag originated from a local tune of this region.

In Hindustani music, Pundrik Vithul considers Dhanasari a ragini of Shudh Bhairav ​​rag as per the rag-ragini classification. According to Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha, Dhanasari is a sampuran ragini of Kaphi that. In this verse of the Guru Granth Sahib as well, Dhanasari is mentioned as a ragini:
dhanāsarī dhanvantī jāṇīai bhāī jāṁ satigur kī kār kamāi. -Guru Granth Sahib 1419.

Rag Dhanasari is also listed as a ragini in the ‘Ragmala’ of the Guru Granth Sahib. In this context, Sant Tahil Singh’s statement is worth noting that when verses or hymns are composed for singing, they are recorded under the title ‘rag.’ The rag, ragini etc., classification is only used in the ‘Ragmala.’

However, some modern-day Sikh scholars argue that only the word ‘rag’ is used in the titles of the Guru Granth Sahib, while the word ‘ragini’ does not appear anywhere. Therefore, they claim there is no ragini in the Guru Granth Sahib, and hence there is no place for the rag-ragini classification in Gurmat Sangit (Sikh Devotional Music).

According to Dr. Gurnam Singh, "As all the rags employed in the Guru Granth Sahib have a specific doctrine, they can only be made the subject of study from a scientific perspective based on music. To give a direction to the multi-layered rhetoric of the rag-ragini classification prevalent in the Middle Ages, the Guru has used only the word ‘rag’ for all the rags.” It’s important to note that in all Hindustani music texts, there existed a tradition of referring to rag-raginis simply as ‘rag.’ Only when a particular rag was discussed or elucidated was it classified in terms of rag or ragini.

According to Bhai Avtar Singh and Gurcharn Singh, Dhanasari is sung in four different ways: Kaphi ang (style), Multani ang, Puria ang, and Bhairavi ang. There is no difference in the aroh (ascending) and avroh (descending) scale of these variations of Dhanasari; the difference is only in notes.

Hindustani music experts describe three different forms of Dhanasari. Raghunath Talegavakar and Acharya Krishan Narayan Ratanjanakar classify it as Kaphi that, while Pandit Bhatkhande and Pandit Ram Krishan Vyas classify it as both Kaphi and Bhairavi that. In contrast, Vimalkant Rai Chaudhary classifies it as Kaphi and Bhairavi that in addition to another that.

Some old artists of Hindustani Music assume Dhanasari to be Puria Dhanasari belonging to Purabi that. However, the artists associated with the musical tradition of Panjab sing Dhanasari in two separate forms of Kaphi that and Bhairavi that, of which the Dhanasari of Kaphi that is more popular.

According to Prof. Kartar Singh, scholars have mostly described the following form of Rag Dhanasari, which originated from Kaphi. The form also accepted by the Rag Nirnayak Committee is as follows:

Description of Rag Dhanasari
That: Kaphi.
Svar (notes): Ga and Ni are komal (flat), rest all notes are shudh (natural).
Varjit Svar (forbidden notes): Re and Dha in aroh (ascending scale).
Jati: aurav-sampuran.
Vadi (Prominent note): Pa.
Samvadi (Sub-prominent note): Sa.
Aroh (ascending scale): Sa Ga (komal - flat), Ma Pa, Ni (komal - flat) Sa (tar saptak - upper octave).
Avroh (descending scale): Sa (tar saptak - upper octave) Ni (komal - flat) Dha Pa, Ma Pa Ga (komal - flat), Re Sa.
Mukh Ang/Pakar (main part): Ni (komal - flat of mandar saptak - lower octave) Sa Ga (komal - flat), Ma Pa, Ni (komal - flat) Dha Pa, Ma Pa Ga (komal - flat), Re Sa.

Singing Time
The third quarter of the day.