Raag Hansdhwani Live in Edinburgh by Pt. Ajay Prasanna

Pandit Ajay Prasanna opened the second half of the Raga Unison double bill with Raag Hansdhwani on bansuri, performed at the Music Hall of Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, on 16 November 2025. The evening had begun with the weighty, introspective Raag Marwa; Hansdhwani shifted the atmosphere, bringing the raga's characteristic openness and forward momentum into the hall.

Raag Hansdhwani belongs to the Bilawal thaat and uses five notes, omitting Ma and Dha. Its aroha S R G P N S' moves in clean ascending steps; the descent mirrors it without detour. The raga suits the late evening and carries a joyous, celebratory mood. Its pakad (G R S .N S R G P G R S) circles back to the lower Sa, grounding each phrase before the melody lifts again.

Ustad Shahbaz Hussain on tabla and R. N. Prakash on ghatam shaped the rhythmic architecture across the performance. Hansdhwani drew out Ajay Prasanna's more percussive phrasing on the bansuri: quick turns, leaps into the upper octave, and phrases that landed hard on Pa. The ghatam brought a Carnatic texture into an otherwise North Indian frame, and the two percussion players found shared rhythmic territory, each tradition intact.