50 Articles for 2019 Number 03
Topic: mUrcana kAraka rAgams
(also covered: popularity / beauty of some rAgams)
A rAgam whose swarastanas are retained while shifting the tonic note (adhara sadjam) to get other rAgams, is known as a mUrcana kAraka rAgam. For example, if we keep the relative position of notes of mOHanam and shift the shruti (sadjam) to its rishabham, we will get madhyamAvati. What do we mean by this? The distance of swaras from previous swara in mOHanam are sa->next tone (T)->ri-(T)->ga-next tone+semi-tone (T+ST)->pa-(T)->da-(T+ST)->sa'. For madhyamAvati, the series is sa->(T)->ri-(T+ST)->ma-(T)->pa-(T+ST)->ni-(T)->sa'. As we can see the sequence T - T - T+ST - T - T+ST has been rotated to get T - T+ST - T - T+ST - T (moving first tone gap interval to last).
If we wish to look at it from keyboard layout point of view, with 12 swaras stanas (7 swaras or fewer are chosen from the 12 for a rAgam usually), and we start with first white key (C - oru kattai), we will find mOHanam is C D E G A. If we start with D (rendu kattai; 2nd white key) D E G A C we get madhyamAvati. This shift is referred variably as graHa bhEdam or swara bhEdam. That is, keeping same relative swara relationships but shift the tambura / shruti box to next swara, we get the different rAgam - this shift in shadjam (tonic note) is known as graHa bhEdam.
If we use number of keys to represent this, instead of T, S, etc., by using 2 for T, 1 for S (semi tone) and 3 for tone+semi-tone (2 keys are skipped), etc., the rAgam can be represented as follows : mOHanam - 2 2 3 2 3 and madhyamAvati 2 3 2 3 2. Further graHa bhEdam leads to HindOLam (3 2 3 2 2), shuddha sAveri (2 3 2 2 3) and udayaravicandrikA (3 2 2 3 2).
If we apply the numbering scheme to a mELakarta rAgam like mAyAmALavagowLa, we will see that the numbering is 1 3 1 2 1 3 1 (seven numbers between sa and sa'). For shankarAbharanam it is 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 (major scale of western music, playing all white keys starting at C - oru kattai).
Why are the above audava rAgams mentioned above, including the graHa bhEdham derivatives of mOHanam as well as shankarAbharanam, kharaHarapriyA, tODi, kalyANi, HarikambhOji and naTabhairavi so pleasing to hear? It is because of the even tone / semi-tone intervals, which makes the swara combination very pleasing to hear. And since they are pleasing to hear, they have been elaborated a lot and gained that strength amongst usage.
shankarAbharanam (2 2 1 2 2 2 1; mELakarta 29), kharaHarapriyA (2 1 2 2 2 1 2; mELakarta 22), tODi (1 2 2 2 1 2 2; mELakarta 8), kalyANi (2 2 2 1 2 2 1; mELakarta 65), HarikambhOji (2 2 1 2 2 1 2; mELakarta 28) and naTabhairavi (2 1 2 2 1 2 2; mELakarta 21). This even spread of swarams makes them the heavy weights of Carnatic music. As mentioned above, the same with the audava rAgams (pentatonic scales).
What about 7th combination 1 2 2 1 2 2 2? The swaras obtained are S R1 G2 M1 M2 D1 N2 S - which has no pancamam and two madhyamams - and hence is not a valid mELakarta rAgam. However, there is nothing stopping musicians from creating music using that scale.
In similar manner many mELakarta rAgams yield other mELakarta rAgams, pentatonic scales yield other pentatonic scales (Hamsadhvani yields valaji for example), shAdava scales yield other hexatonic scales, etc.
The rasikAs can work out more rAgams and their derivatives in this manner. We can also see why certain rAgams are sung by musicians as graHa bhEdam during their AlApanAs, rAgamAlikA swarams, etc., which is a seamless slide.
Other than mathematics aspect, there is a physics aspect too for the favoritism towards certain rAgams - but we will leave it to another article by any rasikA who would like to join contributing to this series.
PS: This is the simple bhEdam of swara sthAnam based operation only - other aspects like amsa swarams, jIva swarams, nyAsa swarams are not considered for this derivation or graHa /swara bhEdam.
PS2: The reference to keyboard / piano is only for pictorial understanding. The actual shrutis (frequencies of sound) in western music and in Indian classical music are slightly different, which can be covered in another article.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

33 of 50

50 articles for 2019-2020 33 of 50 Structure of Krithis part 2 Annamayyas krithis dont have an Anupallavi passage and His Samkeertanas have multiple charanas. While Puradaradasa's compositions have mixed variety as in some have anupallavi passages and some dont. Thiagaraja Swami and Syama Sastry compositions have multiple charanams and its not a LH thumb rule since there are uni charana compositions too. We can conclude that due to lack of evidence of a structure for Krithis as a standard, the brilliants minds explored many formats. We must mention a Margadarshi. A pre trinity composer Sesha Ayyangar composed in Sanksrit, His kritis have triple charanams, and he experimented with the traditional pallavi-anupallavi-caraNam structure of kritis. The famous musician Shatkala Govinda Marar brought with him a collection of the songs of Margadarsi Sesha Iyengar and sang many of them before the king, Swati Tirunal. Impressed by their novelty, adopted them as models for ...
Read more

35 of 50

50 articles for 2019-2020 Article 35 of 50 GovindarajaSwamy and Gummakambodhi Yes yes of late my aritlcles resemble some archaelogical find but i can assure my sea of readers ( less than 10) it is unintentional. When visiting the magnificient temple of Nataraja in Chidambaram i used to wonder how come there is a Govindarajaswamy temple in the Siva Complex and answered myself it could be the syncretic nature of our 3 arms of Hinduism Decade ago i was captivated by Sanjays rendition of Govindarajena rakshitoham sada by Muthuswamy Dikshtar , the raga name easily merging in the Sahitya...the final lines of the Vibhakthi being mEca bauLi rAgENa santOshitEna I have to visit what readers already know as in the beautiful Bowli raga with the following Arohana and Avarohana ārohaṇa: S R₁ G₃ P D₁ Ṡ avarohaṇa: Ṡ N₃ D₁ P G₃ R₁ S Curiosity be served with some food... Venkatamakhin enumerated without describing this raga. I will just run thru the references which speak of Mecha...
Read more