Rag Dhanasari
This Sabad, under the title ‘Arti,’ has been uttered by Guru Nanak Sahib in Rag Dhanasari. ‘Dhanasari’ is a melodious rag of the Indian musical tradition, originating from the northern region of modern India, and it is mentioned as a prominent rag in Classical Music. In ancient musical texts, the names of Dhanasari are given as Dhanasi, Dhanayasi, Dhanashri etc. According to Prof. Piara Singh Padam, ‘Dhanasari’ was the name of a western part of Panjab, and this rag originated from a local tune of this region.

Out of the thirty-one rags in Guru Granth Sahib, Rag Dhanasari has been designated the tenth place in the sequence. Five Gurus and seven Bhagats have uttered compositions in this rag in Guru Granth Sahib, recorded from pages ranging from 660 through 695. Among them, Guru Nanak Sahib and Guru Ramdas Sahib have uttered fourteen Sabads each, Guru Amardas Sahib has uttered nine, Guru Arjan Sahib sixty, Guru Teghbahadar Sahib four, Bhagat Kabir and Bhagat Namdev five each, Bhagat Ravidas three and Bhagat Trilocan, Bhagat Pipa, Bhagat Dhanna, and Bhagat Sain have uttered one Sabad each.

In Hindustani music, Pundrik Vithul considers Dhanasari to be a ragini of Shudh Bhairav ​​rag as per the rag-ragini classification. According to Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha, Dhanasari is a complete ragini of kafi that. In this verse of Guru Granth Sahib as well, Dhanasari has been mentioned as a ragini: dhanāsarī dhanvantī jāṇīai bh āī jāṁ satigur kī kār kamāi. -Guru Granth Sahib 1419

In the ‘Ragmala’ recorded at the end of Guru Granth Sahib also, it has been mentioned as a ragini.
In this context, the statement of Sant Tahil Singh is worth noting that when the verses or hymns are composed for singing, they are recorded under the title ‘rag.’ The rag, ragini classification is only used in ‘Ragmala.’

But some modern day Sikh scholars argue that only the word ‘rag’ is used in the titles of Guru Granth Sahib, and the word ‘ragini’ is not written anywhere. Therefore there is no ragini in Guru Granth Sahib. They believe that there is no place for the rag-ragini classification in Gurmat Sangit.

According to Dr. Gurnam Singh, "Because all the rags employed in Guru Granth Sahib have a specific doctrine, they can only be made the subject of study from a scientific perspective based on music. To give a direction to the multi-layered rhetoric of the rag-ragini classification prevalent in the Middle Ages, the Guru has used only the word 'rag' for all the rags.” At the same time, it is worth mentioning here that in all Indian musical texts, there was a tradition of calling and writing the rag-raginis as ‘rag.’ Only when a raga was interpreted was it described as a rag/ragini.

According to Bhai Avtar Singh Dhanasari is sung in four different ways: kafi ang, multani ang, puria ang and bhairavi ang. There is no difference in the ascending (aroh) and descending (avroh) scale of these variations of Dhanasari; the difference is only in notes.

Indian Music experts have mentioned three different forms of Dhanasari. Raghunath Talegavakar and Acharya Krishan Narayan Ratanjanakar have mentioned kafi that, Pandit Bhatkhande and Pandit Ram Krishan Vyas have mentioned bhairavi that, and Vimalkant Rai Chaudhary has mentioned kafi and bhairavi that in addition to another that.

Some old artists of Indian Music assume Dhanasari to be Puria Dhanasari belonging to purabi that. But the artists associated with the musical tradition of Panjab sing Dhanasari in two separate forms of that kafi and bhairavi, of which the Dhanasari of that kafi is more popular.

According to Prof. Kartar Singh, scholars have mostly described the following form of Rag Dhanasari that has originated from that kafi:

Description of Rag Dhanasari
That: kafi
Svar (notes): gandhar and nishad are flat (komal), rest all notes are normal (shudh)
Varjit Svar (forbidden notes): rishab and dhaivat in aroh (ascending scale)
Jati: aurav-sampuran
Vadi: pancham
Samvadi: shadaj
Aroh (ascending scale): Sa Ga (komal - flat), Ma Pa, Ni (komal - flat) Sa (tar sa
ptak - upper octave).
Avroh (descending scale): Sa (tar saptak - upper octave) Ni (komal - flat) Dha Pa, Ma Pa Ga (komal - flat), Re Sa.
Mukh Ang/Pakar (Main Part): Ni (komal - flat of mandar saptak - lower octave) Sa Ga (komal - flat) Ma Pa, Ni (komal - flat) Dha Pa, Ma Pa Ga (komal - flat), Re Sa.

Singing Time
Third quarter of the day.