Thursday, May 21, 2009

CARNATIC BASICS - 10

janya raagas

janya means 'born'. a janya raga is one that is born out of a parent melakartha raga.

e.g. hamsadhwani is a janya raga of 29th melam shankarabharanam. how?

the aarohanam and avarohanam of hamsadhwani is

s r2 g3 p n3 s / s n3 p g r2 s.

the aarohanam and avarohanam of shankarabharanam is

s r2 g3 m1 p d2 n3 s / s n3 d2 p m1 g3 r2 s

this is derived from the parent raga by omitting m1 and d2.

it is interesting to note that both shankarabharanam and kalyani have the same swaras but for ma. and hamsadhwani does not have ma. then how come it is said that it is derived from shankarabharanam and not kalyani. it cud very well be kalyani also, isn't it? this is where our ancestors brilliance comes into the scene.

eventhough apparently the swaras of hamsadwani are common to both the melams, the 'gamaka' prayogams in the raga are more loyal to shankarabharanam than kalyani. that is how they allotted this raga to the 29th mela.

one more e.g. mohanam is a janya raga of harikambodhi and not shankarabharanam.
mohanam has s r2 g3 p d2 s / s d2 p g3 r2 s

these notes are common for both hk and sb. but depending on the gamakam, it is allotted to hk.

some more janya ragas

abhogi &
sudha dhanyasi from karahara priya


hindholam &
bhoopalam from hanumathodi etcetera.

i have not mentioned the swarasthanam here. i want to remind this thread is just an introduction to carnatic music. so i want to be as simple as possible. this is not reference material.

i wud like to give the names for the swaras here. they are

sa - shadjam
ri - rishabham
ga - gandharam
ma - madhyamam
pa - panchamam
dha - dhaivatham
ni - nishadham


each has a meaning and reason. will be elaborated later.

it is interesting to note eventhough in western classical the notes are referred to as cdefgab they have got syllables too. it is do re mi fa so la ti .

it is called solmization. this system is called solfege and these syllables also have meaning.

 
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