It is not without reason that Yaman has been designated as the raag with which a learner should begin his musical journey. There are innumerable aspects, sides, to raag Yaman – a thousand musical phrases can be woven around its basic melodic structure. It is a raag that gives the musician infinite opportunities to improvise and explore. The great musician and scholar Dr. Sumati Mutatkar once told me a tale about a great maestro who said that though he had been singing Raag Yaman for years, one day he found a phrase in it which he had never come across before and he was rendered numb. The novice aims at understanding Yaman, and what a paradox- the master, after ages of Riyaaz and Sadhana is still looking for Yaman!
Traditionally, a music student is not introduced to any other raag till he attains a certain level of proficiency in the rendering of this basic and yet most complex and mind-boggling raags. Indeed our gurus and ancestors were people with a vision – so they choose to give you raag Yaman in the start, which alone would take years to master. Raag Yaman puts you down to the earth, and is like a window to the giant-like, awesome tradition of Indian music. It tells you that music is an unfathomable ocean. But the fact is that Yaman itself is an unfathomable ocean!
A very famous saying goes “ek sadhe sab sadhe” meaning that if you have mastered one raag, then it is not difficult for you to understand and master the others. Once raag Yaman manifests itself and its true form to you, you can conquer the world!
As I sit writing this everything ceases to make sense once that melody hits me. Can one ever get over Raag Yaman?