Karnatic Raag Mahati
Amit Chatterjee
I had an opportunity to listen to a Karnatic CD by Shri Balmurali Krishna
playing Raag Mahati. I was wondering about its Hindustani counterpart.
It had traces of Hindustani raags - Jog, Kalavati, Abhogi and a few others
but none of them was a complete fit. Anyone with an idea of the equivalent ?
Regards.
--
************************************************************************
Amit Chatterjee
a s a v @ i x .n e t c o m . c o m
amit_ch...@hotmail.com
http://pw1.netcom.com/~asav
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Krishna Kunchithapadam
amit_ch...@hotmail.com (Amit Chatterjee) writes:
:
: I had an opportunity to listen to a Karnatic CD by Shri Balmurali Krishna
: playing Raag Mahati. I was wondering about its Hindustani counterpart.
: It had traces of Hindustani raags - Jog, Kalavati, Abhogi and a few others
: but none of them was a complete fit. Anyone with an idea of the equivalent ?
The similarity that you perceive between Mahati and Kalavati,
Abhogi, Jog is sound. However, I do not think that there is a
precise, scale-equivalent of Mahati in Hindustani music.
Mahati is a raga with just 4 svaras in its scale: s g3 p n2.
Abhogi is pentatonic: s r2 g3 p n2 (and hence the similarity).
Bits of Mahati trivia:
* Balamurali's daughter is named Mahati.
* Mahati is the name of the 4-stringed veena played by Narada.
Balamurali, in the Doordarshan program _Saadhana_ says that he
named the raga Mahati to characterize its 4-note status.
* When it was first introduced into the music scene in the 1960s,
most people did not accept the notion that a raga with fewer
than 5 svaras could exist (or be regarded as a legitimate
raga).
Many people continue to claim so even now, when Balamurali has
composed kritis in 3 ragas with 4-notes and 2 ragas with 3-notes.
For more information:
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~krisna/rmic/rmic.1994.10.11.html
--Krishna
Ragavan
Mahati's elegance was noticed by the famous Tamil music director MS
Viswanathan. The song "Adhisaya Raagam" sung by Yesudoss in K
Balachandar's film "Abhoorva Raagangal" has its first three stanzas in
Mahati- it was MSV's tribute to Balamurali's genious for the rare and
the uncommon.
Having proved beyond doubt that four swaras are sufficient to create a
living, breathing raga, Balamurali went on to concieve of a tri-tonic
raga: Sarvasree. Sarvasree has just the Sudha Madhyama, besides Sadjama
and Panchama! This raga is no Kalyani or Thodi in terms of scope, but it
is a proof-of-concept that a scale of three notes can have a musical
identity. I had the fortune of learning the Kirthana (Uma Sutham Namaami)
as well as many others, from the maestro himself.
I just noticed that
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~krisna/rmic/rmic.1994.10.11.html | |--Krishna
has more info on Balamurali's creations- 'Manorama' is a miss- any
particular reason, Krishna?
thank you.
Ragavan
Krishna Kunchithapadam
Ragavan <rm...@csis5.ee.virginia.edu> writes:
:
: Mahati's elegance was noticed by the famous Tamil music director MS
: Viswanathan. The song "Adhisaya Raagam" sung by Yesudoss in K
: Balachandar's film "Abhoorva Raagangal" has its first three stanzas in
: Mahati- it was MSV's tribute to Balamurali's genious for the rare and
: the uncommon.
Mahati is indeed an "adisaya, aanandha, azhagiya, apoorva" raga.
:
: I just noticed that
: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~krisna/rmic/rmic.1994.10.11.html | |--Krishna
: has more info on Balamurali's creations- 'Manorama' is a miss- any
: particular reason, Krishna?
:
One of these days I will find the time (:-) to prepare a web page
listing all the ragas created by Balamurali, along with
representative compositions in them.
A recent recording by Balamurali has compositions in 4 of his own
ragas: sumukham, sarvasri, mahati, and lavangi. The title of the
album is "Navya Ragas".
--Krishna
kv...@hotmail.com
In article <67krq8$l...@spool.cs.wisc.edu>,
kri...@calico.cs.wisc.edu (Krishna Kunchithapadam) wrote:
>
>
> A recent recording by Balamurali has compositions in 4 of his own
> ragas: sumukham, sarvasri, mahati, and lavangi. The title of the
> album is "Navya Ragas".
>
> --Krishna
This is not a new recording. I have this casette for at least last
5 years :-) Brought out by Surya record of Vizg if I'm not mistaken.
A good album, though.
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kv...@hotmail.com
In article <67judd$3...@spool.cs.wisc.edu>,
kri...@calico.cs.wisc.edu (Krishna Kunchithapadam) wrote:
>
> The similarity that you perceive between Mahati and Kalavati,
> Abhogi, Jog is sound. However, I do not think that there is a
> precise, scale-equivalent of Mahati in Hindustani music.
>
> Mahati is a raga with just 4 svaras in its scale: s g3 p n2.
> Abhogi is pentatonic: s r2 g3 p n2 (and hence the similarity).
Krishna ! You must be kidding :-) :-)
Abhogi is pentatonic with S R2 G1 M1 D2 S ( 1 = komala, 2 = Tivra )
Kalavati/ Valaji is S G2 P D2 N2 S and if you leave out the D, you end
up in Mahati. So no doubt you feel the traces of Kalavati !
Valaji and Abhogi are M/P graha bheda's of each other. Start on P of
Kalavati, we end up getting Abhogi, we could probably hear a bit of
Abhogi too , I have not noticed !
Ramaprasad K V
V P Iyengar
> The similarity that you perceive between Mahati and Kalavati,
> Abhogi, Jog is sound. However, I do not think that there is a
> precise, scale-equivalent of Mahati in Hindustani music.
>
> Mahati is a raga with just 4 svaras in its scale: s g3 p n2.
> Abhogi is pentatonic: s r2 g3 p n2 (and hence the similarity).
Isn't Abhogi s r2 g2 m1 d2 s? If that is right, I was just wondering,
which raga is the s r2 g3 p n2 s?
Venkatesh
Raga
|Isn't Abhogi s r2 g2 m1 d2 s? If that is right, I was just wondering,
|which raga is the s r2 g3 p n2 s?
|
|Venkatesh
s r2 g3 p n2 is "Veenavaahini". Yesudoss has popularized a "Shree
Ganeshaswaram" in this raga- I can't remember whose composition it is,
though.
Ragavan.
Hari Asuri
>s r2 g3 p n2 is "Veenavaahini". Yesudoss has popularized a "Shree
>Ganeshaswaram" in this raga- I can't remember whose composition it is,
>though.
>Ragavan.
The raga is "veenaavaadini" and the song is "Shree Ganeshathparam" by
Muthuswamy Dikshithar.
Hari
