With the completion of one year since the launch of Raga Surabhi, it is time to reflect and introspect on our journey so far. The sole idea of setting up Raga Surabhi was to create more awareness about carnatic music in relatively new beginners and enhance concert listening experience by making the raga identification process simple.  Our experience from our interactions with rasikas show that several new learners are able to consistently perform well in the raga quizzes which is a testimony to the fact that the concept of raga identification through signature patterns certainly works!

I would like to mention here that the 100 ragas covered so far is a fairly good mix of all types of ragas.  We have handled ghana ragas like thodi, shankarabaranam, bhairavi, kambodhi, important melakarthas like kalyani, mayamalava gowlai, karaharapriya, keeravani, important janya ragas like mohanam, hindolam, suddha dhanyasi, vasantha, ragas with special emotive appeal like saramati, sahana, kalyanavasantham, kanada and ragas sung mainly in the thukkada section like darbari kanada, desh, behag and maand. The idea of choosing ragas from various genres is to provide a good collection of ragas that normally feature in any concert.  I can safely add that by being thorough with these 100 ragas, it should be possible for rasikas to identify 80 - 90% of ragas in any carnatic music concert.

The concept of signature is made possible by the unique sancharas which are characteristic and specific to a particular raga.  In the case of ragas with similar swaras, signature alone would not be sufficient and hence comparison episodes were provided to make the understanding complete.  There are still a good number of comparisons to be taken up and this will be done in the coming weeks.  I think it would not be a good idea to provide signatures for ragas which seem to have only one or two kritis in them or for those which do not give scope for deriving typical signature patterns.  Going forward, the plan is to concentrate more on the complete understanding of the hundred ragas covered so far and take up only those remaining few new ragas which give scope for rendering signatures.

Personally for me, Raga Surabhi has been a great learning experience.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my interaction with rasikas for the past one year.  I thank all the rasikas for encouraging me through their feedback mails and requests for special renditions.  

Musically yours,
Uma

 This week's update contains ragas which are sung in 'madhyama shruti'. So, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss the concept of madhyama shruti and understand the reason behind singing these ragas in madhyama shruti.

We know that a tambura's drone constitutes the swaras Sa, Pa, Sa of which Sa is the fundamental frequency which determines the position of all the other swaras.  When the tambura is set to give out the swaras, Sa, Ma, Sa (replacing Pa by Ma) it is called the 'madhyama shruti'.  The idea of doing this is to shift the fundamental frequency from Sa to the swara Ma.  Keeping the position of Ma as Sa, other swaras are derived accordingly.  But one may ask why make life complicated by doing this exercise when one is comfortably settled with the normal Sa, Pa, Sa.  To answer this question, we will have to first understand what Panchamantya, Dhavaithantya and Nishadhantya ragas are.  Well, as their names suggest, these ragas have truncated arohanam-avarohanam extending only up to swaras Pa, Da or Ni respectively and having only limited sancharas.  For example, kurinji is a janyam of shankarabaranam containing swaras only till Da. When rendered in the normal panchama shruti, the pitch would be very low and hence would create less of an impact.  Rendering these ragas in the madhyama shruti enhances the feel and effect of the raga.  All the commonly rendered madhyama shruti ragas feature in this week's new raga segment. (Listen to the comparison of Panchama Vs Madhyama Shruti)

All the ragas that feature in this week's episode (Week 53) are highly phrase oriented and have only limited scope of elaboration.  Normally they feature in the ragamalika segment in a concert or in the tukkadas.  It may not be advisable to provide arohanam-avarohanam for these ragas, however I would like to mention the name of the parent ragas from which they have been derived.

Kurinji - Janyam of Shankarabaranam
Nadanamakriya - Janyam of Mayamalava Gowlai
Punnagavarali - Janyam of Thodi
Shenjurutti - Janyam of Harikambodhi
Yamuna Kalyani - Janyam of Kalyani

Hope you find them interesting.  

Musically yours,

Uma.

 The raga next in our discussion is 'Thodi', I am sure many of you have already guessed that! Thodi is the 8th Melakartha raga, having a very majestic appeal and offers limitless scope for elaboration.  I would say it is also a difficult raga for beginners since all the swaras are heavily gamaka laden.  The raga is full of karuna rasam and evokes a feeling of instant bhakthi. Being a ghana raga, it occupies a special place in any concert platform either as a main item or in the RTP segment.


The jeeve swaras are 'Ga', 'Ma', 'Da' and the nyasa swaras are 'Ga', 'Ma', 'Pa', 'Da', 'Ni'. The speciality of thodi lies in the fact that almost all its swaras are soaked with gamakam which is also the reason for that haunting and lingering feel of the raga. The beauty of the raga is further enhanced by jantai prayogas and Sadjama - Panchama varja prayogas. (Listen to prayogas in Thodi)


Some popular janya ragas from Thodi are Asaveri, Suddha Seemandhini, Dhanyasi, Bhupalam and Punnagavarali.


Some famous compositions in Thodi -


Thyagaraja's Kaddanuvariki, Koluvamare gada, Koti natulu, Enthuku daya radhu ra, Aragimpave, Emi jesithe, Dasukovalena, Karuna judavamma, Jesinathella

Dikshitar's Shri Krishnam Bhaja Manasa, Kamalambike, Mahaganapathim, Ramachandraya namaste

Syama Sastry's Ninne namminanu sada, Nannu Brochutaku, Rave himagirikumari

Papanasam Sivan's Karthikeya Gangeya, Tamasam yen swamy, Tanigai valar saravana bhava, Kundram kudikonda, Sarasijanabha murare of Swati Thirunal, Thaye Yasodha of Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi and so on...


Will be back with another raga, until then... its 'Thodi time'!


Musically yours,
Uma.

After our episode on the 'Samrat' of ragas (Surabhi Post - 8), the raga to be discussed next, obviously has to be the 'Maharani'!  Kalyani is the 65th melakartha raga, the prati madhyama equivalent of raga Shankarabaranam.  Kalyani is one of the most popular major ragas with a very pleasing and attractive bhava and brings in a mood of joy and happiness.  


Though ragas Shankarabaranam and Kalyani share the same swaras and differ only in the note 'Ma' in their arohanam and avarohanam, there is a world of difference in the way the swaras are handled in both these ragas. The gamakam aspects are entirely different though the notes may be the same.  Rasikas may recall the 'flat' 'Ga' in Shankarabaranam where as Kalyani has a strong oscillating 'Ga'.  Similarly Shankarabaranam has a strong gamakam based 'Ri' while Kalyani has a flat 'Ri'.  The general rule, I would like to mention here, is that, if there is a strong gamakam in a particular swara, the next swara in most cases would be flat.  I would like to recall here a Lecture-Demonstration by Sangeetha Kalanidhi Smt. R. Vedavalli on the importance of gamakam in carnatic music during the last music season.  She asked the audience to find out whether it was Kalyani or Shankarabaranam by merely singing the swaras 'Ga' and 'Ri' and explained that though the differentiating swara was 'Ma' there was no need to look for 'Ma' all the time and it is possible to identify the raga based on the gamakas incorporated in the other swaras as well. The next striking feature of Kalyani is the strongly oscillating 'Ni'.  Thus 'Ga' and 'Ni' are considered the Jeeva swaras. 'Ri' 'Ga', 'Da' and 'Ni' are nyasa swaras. Apart from the regular sancharas, the prayogas omitting 'Pa' and 'Sa' (called panchama-sadja varjam) add special beauty to this raga (Listen to the key prayogas of kalyani raga).


Some popular janya ragas from Kalyani are Mohana kalyani, Yamuna kalyani, Saranga, Hamir kalyani, Sunadha Vinodhini and Vandara Dharini.


Some famous compositions in Kalyani -


Thyagaraja's Nidhi Chala Sukhama, Sundari Nee Divya Rupamu, Ethavunara, Vasudevayani, Amma Ravamma


Dikshitar's Bhajare Re Chitha, Kamalambam Bhajare, Shiva Kameshwareem, 


Syama Sastry's Thalli Ninnu Nera, Birana Varalichi, Himadri Suthe


Swati Thirunal's Pankaja Lochana, Papanasam Sivan's Unnai Allal, Badrachala Ramadasar's Nannu Brovumani, Patnam Subramania Iyer's Nija Dasa Vara and the list goes on...


We will take up another raga in our next post, until then you can celebrate Kalyani as much as possible!


Musically yours,
Uma.

Yes, as many of you would have rightly guessed, the raga that we will take up first for an elaborate discussion is indeed Shankarabaranam. Classified as the 29th melakartha raga, Shankarabaranam is considered one of the most superior ragas and has a very special appeal to the senses.  The raga is known to bring in a mood of calmness and sublimity and offers a wide scope of elaborate exploration.

The first and the most characteristic feature of Shankarabaranam is the highly flat and plain 'Ga'.  Infact, most of the musicians would start their opening phrase of raga alapana at the gandharam.  The other jeeva swaras include 'Ma', 'Pa' and to some extent 'Ni'.  While the notes 'Ri', 'Ma' and 'Da' permit strong gamakam, 'Ni' is mostly seen as a note with very little gamakam and is seen always accompanied by the neighboring notes.  The notes 'Sa', 'Ga', 'Ma' and 'Pa' act as nyasa swaras, 'Ri', 'Da' and 'Ni' are non-nyasa swaras.  Here are some Prayogas in Shankarabaranam.

This raga has given rise to several janya ragas which also enjoy equal popularity as the parent; Hamsadhwani, Kedaram, Nilambari, Arabhi, Atana, Bilahari being the more popular ones among the children.

Some famous compositions in Shankarabaranam -

Thyagaraja's Enduku Pethala, Swararaga Sudha Rasa, Bhakthi Bhikshamiyyave, Emi neramu, Manasu Svadhina

Dikshitar's Akshaya Linga Vibho, Sri Dhakshinamurthe, English notes

Syama Sastry's Sarojadala Netri, Devi Mina Netri

Papanasam Sivan's Mahalakshmi Jaganmatha and Annamacharya's Alarulu Guriyaga

Thats only a capsule of Shankarabaranam, but I hope this background would help rasikas appreciate the grandeur and beauty of this raga better.  We will take up another raga in our next post, until then you can keep listening to as much of Shankarabaranam as possible!

Musically yours,
Uma.

So far, as rasikas are aware, we have covered more than 60 ragas in our 'identifying ragas' section.  From the feedback mails and quiz answers, I am happy to note that rasikas have got a hang of almost all these ragas and should have no  difficulty in identifying them in any format.  However, there lies much more in the understanding of a raga than just knowing the arohanam-avorohanam and signature patterns.  We have just covered, so to say, 'the tip of the iceberg' and there are many more subtleties and nuances that one probably begins to understand and appreciate with only years of continuous listening.  In a small attempt to widen the horizon of appreciating ragas, I thought of dedicating a few episodes of Surabhi Post to discuss some of the important and commonly handled ragas in more detail.

Before we take up specific ragas for discussion, we need to know the concept of 'jeeva' and 'nyasa' swaras , so lets first take a look at them.

Jeeva Swaras - The quintessential swaras which lend life (jeeva) to a particular raga.  The knowledge of the jeeva swaras is very much important for the rendition of raga alapana.  The elaboration of a raga is done by building phrases around the jeeva swaras. For e.g., in Mohanam the swaras, Ga, Da are jeeva swaras.

Nyasa Swaras - 'Nyasa' means 'settling down', therefore, swaras which can be used as the ending notes while rendering an alapana or a composition are called 'nyasa swaras'.  Sometimes most of the swaras in the arohanam-avarohanam can be nyasa swaras.  For e.g., in Kalyani, all the swaras except 'Ma' are nyasa swaras.

In order to help rasikas understand the discussion about ragas with clarity, I am providing the audio files of various swara sthanas.  On repeated listening of these, I hope one should be able to get a hang of the swara sthanas to some extent.  What I have demonstrated here is just the swara with out gamakams.  The swaras on incorporation of gamakam may sound different, depending on the raga swaroopa, therefore, this is just a guideline.  Here are the demonstrations:

Sa Pa Sa, Ri family, Ga family, Ma family, Da family, Ni family

We will get started with the most grand and majestic raga which enjoys universal appeal and forms an integral part of all systems of music.  But, that will be in my next post…..until then its happy guessing!

Musically yours,
Uma.