This section features reflections and articulations on the raag by musicians and scholars – viewpoints, anecdotes, insights and more .....

“Kishori fervently believes that Yaman Kalyan is a devotional (prayer like) raga. Everybody knows that in that raga one uses both mas (F and F sharp). But if this raga is sung as a prayer the singer should use only teevra ma (F sharp) until the very end. When the guru or god is pleased he blesses you by placing his hand on your head. This can only happen once. And that is precisely the purpose of the soft (komal) ma in Yaman Kalyan. Accordingly, ma is to be taken in that raga only towards the end and only once. Even if god is pleased, he is not going to bless you every couple of seconds, so why should we allow the soft ma to interfere everywhere? Since the time this was explained to Kishori by her guru she renders Yaman Kalyan almost wholly by using sharp ma; she will use soft ma only once to terminate the raga. Naturally traditionalists criticise her for this but she does not care. Is not her guru’s position thought provoking?”

Extracted from:
Between two Tanpuras : A collection of portraits of eleven musicians
Author : Vamnarao H. Deshpande \
Translated from the original in Marathi by Ram Deshmukh and B.R. Dhekney
Popular Prakashan Bombay
1989

Dr. Raghava Menon narrates a very touching anecdote about Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sahib.
He fondly remembers that when he once met the Ustad just before his death ; the Ustad had told him “Now my life is reaching towards Yaman”.
The Ustad intuitively realised that the dusk of his life was near and hence drew this beautiful analogy between his life and Raag Yaman, a raag to be sing after twilight hours.