The Soul of Sunset: Raag Marwa Aalap in Edinburgh by Pt. Ajay Prasanna

Pandit Ajay Prasanna, a three-time Grammy-nominated bansuri player from the Banaras Gharana, performed this Aalap in Raag Marwa at the Raga Unison at Edinburgh double-bill concert, held at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh on 16 November 2025.

Raag Marwa belongs to the Marwa Thaat and takes sunset as its samay. Its defining characteristic is the strict omission of the Pancham (Pa), which removes the raga's natural anchor and sends the melody into a restless outward motion from Sa. The Komal Rishabh functions as the vadi, the raga's most-weighted note, and in combination with Shuddha Dhaivat, creates a friction that resists resolution. This structural absence, associated with the concept of Tyaga, accounts for the raga's characteristic outward pull.

In this nineteen-minute Aalap, Prasanna works through Marwa's characteristic phrases on the bansuri with the breath control this raga demands. He returns to the komal Re, reaching toward Nishad before descending through the sharp Ma, the raga's other distinctive note, and back toward Sa without resting there. Prasanna sustains the raga's tension across long, slow phrases, each one completing its arc before the next begins.