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Governed by time: Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia

I have a favourite raga or two in each of these prahars. Among the early morning ragas I like Bhairavi and Lalit.

Among early afternoon ragas I like Sarang and the various forms of this raga, like Madhyamad Sarang and Shuddha Sarang. Then there are Bhimpalasi and Multani.

Early evening ragas I like are Marwa and Shri. I also like Puriya. Later in the evening I like Yaman. Later still comes Malkauns. And then Darbari. Since concerts take place mostly in the evenings, the ragas of the early morning and afternoon are rarely heard. You can only hear them on the radio. However, that is not the same as hearing a live concert. It is like a choice between seeing a picture that depicts God and going to the temple and experiencing darshan! Besides, the radio announcers are not necessarily trained in music. They might just as well play a morning raga in the evening.

The tradition of time periods for ragas is unique to Hindustani music. In Carnatic music it is not necessarily adhered to, but traditional Hindustani musicians consider it sacrosanct. If the employees of the radio stations were trained in music, they would never make the mistake of playing a raga at the time not prescribed for it.

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