Mand
मांड
S R G M P D N P D S' | S' N D P M G R G S
Origins & Context
Raag Mand is a Bilawal thaat raga of Hindustani music, performed at night, that uses all seven shuddha notes in crooked, heavily ornamented turns. Shuddha means natural, and a thaat is a parent scale. It is also written Maand, and George Howlett warns against confusing it with Nand.
In this notation, an apostrophe marks the upper octave. One teaching outline gives the aroha, or ascent, as S R G M P D N P D S' and the avaroha, or descent, as S' N D P M G R G S. The vadi, the most prominent note, is Sa. Its partner, the samvadi, is Pa.
The same outline traces Mand to the folk tune of Rajasthan sung at birthdays, weddings and other festive occasions. It calls Mand a light raga that sounds natural but is hard to render. No bada khayal, the slow, large-scale khayal, is set in it, while bhajans and ghazals suit it well. Howlett also finds it popular in light-classical settings.
KalaSudha presents Hindustani musicians in concert and releases their recordings. Its academy teaches ragas online and in local workshops, and each course is built by its instructor with KalaSudha.
Technical Details
Melodic structure and movement patterns
Aroha (Ascent)
S R G M P D N P D S'
Avroh (Descent)
S' N D P M G R G S
Pakad (Catch Phrase)
G M P D S' N D, D P M, M P G R G S
Additional Notes
Phraseologies
Key for these phrases: lowercase d is komal Dha, and an apostrophe puts a note in the upper octave.
One teaching outline counts all seven notes going up and coming down, so Mand is sampurna, with all seven notes, both ways. It gives the ascent a crooked turn, N P D S', and the descent a return to Ga, as in G R G S. Its catch phrase closes the same way: M P G R G S. The outline renders its phrases with khatkas and murkis, quick clusters of grace notes, and lets some touch komal Ga and Dha, as in D d D S'.
Common Phrases
Around the World
Global connections and equivalent scales
With Sa on C, Mand uses the white notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B. George Howlett gives the major scale, the Ionian mode, as its jazz translation, and names Carnatic Mand as its counterpart.