This rag is considered one of the most important in all of Hindustani sangeet. It is the primary rag in Kalyan. It is a primary that. Its importance can easily be seen in the fact that it is one of the first rags to be taught. Indeed many traditions teach it even before Bilawal that.
Its origins are obscure. There is a tendency to ascribe it to
Persian origins, however this is doubtful for several reasons. The
first evidence is to be found in its ancient and very secure position in
carnatic sangeet.
It is known as "Kalyani" in this system. The second and most
important piece of evidence is the fact that it appears to be modally
identical to one of the old Jatis (A brief discusion of Jati may be
found at "Modes and Scales in Hindustani and Carnatic Sangeet").
Thus, when one realizes that this modal form existed in Greek music
(Hypolydian mode), and music of the middle east, it would be easy to
ascribe this mode to proto-IndoEuropean origins. If this is the case,
we are talking of a scale which antedates the concept of raga by several thousand years. Therefore rag Yaman could simply have evolved from this ancient mode with essentially no change.
The structure of Yaman is quite simple. It has all shuddha swars
except for the tivra Ma. It is this note which gives the rag its
distinctive quality of peace, and tranquility. The absence of the
shuddha Ma also means that it will not harmonically fight for a strong
tonic position. Many say that the vadi is Ga and the samavadi is Ni. This rag has a strong association with the evening
