Hindustani raga
A popular sunset raga with komal Re, komal Dha and tivra Ma.
Your guide to Puriya Dhanashree
New to classical music — moods, stories, film songs and simple listening.
Press play to hear the notes of Puriya Dhanashree, rising then falling.
Bhakti, Karuna. Traditionally heard at sunset.
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Think of a raga as more than a scale: a set of rules and a personality. Puriya Dhanashree has its own notes, its own favourite phrases, its own time of day and its own mood, the way a person has a recognisable voice and way of talking.
Puriya Dhanashree sounds mostly bright, with a few shadowed notes that add a bittersweet tint. Its emotional colour is prayer and devotion, like music in a temple; and tenderness and sorrow, the feeling of a sad song that still comforts you. Traditionally it is traditionally performed in the sunset, because Indian musicians believe each raga matches the feeling of a certain hour or season.
A popular sunset raga with komal Re, komal Dha and tivra Ma. The beauty of Puriya Dhanashree comes from patience: a good performer doesn't rush through the scale but lingers, bending into notes and letting each phrase breathe, so the mood builds slowly until it fills the room.
Listening exercise: Try this: press "Full scale" above, then open one of the recordings below. In the first few minutes, see if you can hear the musician dwelling on P. Once you catch it, you've started to recognise Puriya Dhanashree.
Hindustani ragas mostly developed through oral tradition, passed guru to disciple. Medieval treatises such as Sangita Ratnakara (13th c.) and the later Raga-Ragini systems grouped them into 'families'.
In the early 20th century, V. N. Bhatkhande organised Hindustani ragas into ten thaats (parent scales). Puriya Dhanashree is classified under Purvi thaat. The thaat is a modern classification, not necessarily the raga's historical origin.
Each gharana (school) interprets ragas slightly differently, so a raga's phrasing has kept evolving through the 19th and 20th centuries, and further through recordings and radio.
Looking for more history…
Arohana (ascent) · 7 notes
N r G M# P d N S'
Avarohana (descent) · 7 notes
S' N d P M# G r S
Synthesised with Sa = A3. A real performance uses gamakas, meends and phrasing that a bare scale can't capture.
| Swara | Interval from Sa | Western (Sa = C) |
|---|---|---|
| Sa | Unison | C |
| Komal Re | Minor 2nd | C# |
| Shuddh Ga | Major 3rd | E |
| Tivra Ma | Augmented 4th | F# |
| Pa | Perfect 5th | G |
| Komal Dha | Minor 6th | G# |
| Shuddh Ni | Major 7th | B |
Jati (Sampurna–Sampurna). The ascent uses 7 distinct notes and the descent 7. Audava = 5, Shadava = 6, Sampurna = 7.
Krama (straight) movement. Notes are taken in order going up and coming down.
Parent scale. Purvi thaat: Komal Re, Dha and tivra Ma. Equivalent to Carnatic Kamavardhini.
Time (Sunset). Sung at twilight or evening (roughly 4–9 PM), when sandhi-prakash and Kalyan-family ragas are favoured.
Vadi and samvadi. P is the king note, the most emphasised and returned to. r is the minister, the second most important note.
Bhakti
Devotion and surrender to the divine.
Karuna
Compassion, pathos and sorrow.
Each link opens a YouTube or Spotify search for this raga by the instrument or artist.
These ragas use exactly the same notes, though their phrasing and ornaments differ.
Same notes, but a different character because of emphasis, movement and phrasing.
Puriya Dhanashree is traditionally sung: Sunset.
Ragas that sound most like Puriya Dhanashree, and how to tell them apart.
Ragas from the same family or named after Puriya Dhanashree, such as Yaman and Yaman Kalyan. They are related but each has its own rules.
Tori jai jai kartar
Baiju Bawra (1952)
Payaliya bawari
Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959)
No regional film song is confidently attributed to this raga yet.
Film songs often take liberties with a raga, so treat these as "based on" rather than strict renditions.
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Notation: Hindustani komal notes are lowercase (r g d n), M# = tivra Ma, ' = upper octave. Carnatic numbers mark swara variants (R1, G3, …).