Raga Hemant | Alap, Jor and Composition in Rupak Taal | Debaditya Chakraborty | Kala Festival 2023

Debaditya Chakraborty performs Raga Hemant at Kala Festival 2023, accompanied on tabla by Sandipan Mukherjee. The performance moves through three sections: Alap, Jor, and a composition set in Rupak Taal, a seven-beat cycle.

Raga Hemant belongs to the Bilawal thaat and is associated with the early winter season, the Hemant Ritu. Its defining character comes from a restrained use of komal nishad and a tendency to linger in the lower registers, giving the raga a gravity that distinguishes it from more expansive ragas of the same parent thaat. It is performed in the early evening hours.

The performance opens with an unhurried Alap that traces the raga's contours note by note, building from the lower octave into the middle register. The Jor introduces pulse without a fixed tala cycle, tightening the rhythmic texture before the composition locks into the asymmetric seven-beat Rupak Taal. Sandipan Mukherjee's tabla enters here, and the interplay between sitar and tabla carries the performance to its close.