Raga Shahana

Raga Shahana is a khayal performance recorded by Hindustani classical vocalist Ustad Rashid Khan for his 2006 studio album Sangeet Sartaj. Released under the Saregama label, the album features traditional raga expositions in the khayal and tarana styles. The track appears as the second composition on the recording, with a duration of 14 minutes and 27 seconds.

Khan presents Raga Shahana in vilambit (slow) and drut (fast) tempos, adhering to the raga’s structural conventions in the Kafi thaat. The performance includes alaap, jor, and jhala sections followed by composed bandish (lyrical composition) set to Teental (16-beat cycle). Accompaniment details for this track remain undocumented in available sources, though Khan frequently collaborated with tabla players such as Bickram Ghosh and harmonium artists like Rakesh Chaurasia during this period.

The album Sangeet Sartaj marked one of Khan’s later commercial releases under Saregama, showcasing his interpretation of lesser-performed ragas alongside mainstream repertoire. The recording format and production team for the album are not specified in public records. Khan’s rendition of Raga Shahana emphasizes the raga’s characteristic komal gandhar (flattened third) and tivra madhyam (sharp fourth), with improvisational passages highlighting his taan (melodic phrase) technique and meend (glissando) execution.

Critical reception or commercial performance data for Sangeet Sartaj is not widely archived. The album contributes to Khan’s discography of over 50 classical and semi-classical releases, spanning a career that began in the 1970s under the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana. Further details on the recording sessions, alternate takes, or live iterations of this track are not verified in accessible sources.