Hameer

Hameer is a nocturnal Hindustani classical raga nominally placed in Kalyan thaat. All the (shuddha swaras (natural notes) along with (teevra madhyam are used in it. Generally, its vaadi swar (the most used, principal note of a raga on which a pause may be taken) is dhaivat and the samavaadi swar (the second-most used important note assisting the vaadi swar) is gandhar. However, some exponents consider the vaadi swar to be pancham (G natural) as Hameer is mainly sung in the upper half of an octave and is nocturnal. Pancham is not taken in the aaroh but is taken in avroh. Its jati is "Sampurn Sampurn". "Vadi Svar" is Dhaivat (Dh) and Samvadi Swar is Gandhar.

The Carnatic raaga named Hameer Kalyani is similar to Hindusthani raag Kedar, not to Hindusthani Hamir. Carnatic music also has a separate raaga named Kedaram. As it happens, the Hindusthani raagas Kedar, Kamod and Hameer have fairly strong genetic overlap; in Kedar, madhyama is prominent; in Kamod it is Pancham; and in Hameer it is dhaivat which is most dominant.

Ascent and descent
In the ascent, all natural notes are used, sometimes adding F#. In the descent, both of the madhyamas are used. A feature during the descent is the series of swaras 'Pa ga ma re sa' (G E F D C). At times, Komal Nishad (ni) (B flat) is also used as in "Dha ni Pa" during the descent. The general ascent and descent of the notes is:

Sa Re Sa, Ga Ma Dha, Ni Dha Sa                  C  D  C, E  F  A, B  A   C

Sa Ni Dha Pa, ma Pa Dha Pa, Ga Ma Re Sa                  C  B  A   G, F# G  A   G, E  F  D  C

Scholars do not permit the use of teevra madhyam in this raga and consider it to have emanated from Bilaval. But today the F# has become part of the raga. A special characteristic feature of this raga is the specific way in which the dhaivat (dha) is sung or played with a touch of upper nishad (ni) at the beginning.

Samay (time)
The time to sing this raga is 2nd prahar of night i.e. 9:00pm–12:00am.

Language:Hindi

 * The song 'duniyaa hammare pyaar kii', from film Lahore (1949), sung by Karan Diwan and Lata Mangeshkar, and composed by Shyam Sunder, is set to Hameer.
 * The song from the movie Kohinoor, 'Madhuban mein Radhika Nachi re' is composed in the Hameer raga.
 * Vasant Prabhu had a composed a song 'gaa re kokila, gaa', for Marathi film Baayakochaa Bhaauu, set to Hameer, sung by Asha Bhosle.