Rare Ragas

Nadhanaamakriya (Mayamalava Goulai janya)

Aarohanam: S-R1-G3-M1-P-D1-N3

Avarohanam: N3-D1-P-M1-G3-R1-S-N3

I probably heard about this from my mom or dad when I was a little man. And that was about it. I had never listened to any carnatic musician render a krithi in this ragam, until a couple years ago, when Sudha Raghunathan performed in Riverdale, Atlanta. It was an amazing concert, where I listened to a few first-time-ragams and it was just thrilling.

**start brag** Also, like a lot of carnatic music rasikas, there was this family sitting in the row immediately ahead of me – all of them were trying hard to crack the ragam of a beautiful alapana that Sudha was singing…and ahem… yours truly, cracked it within the first few seconds.. It was Hemavathi, and I was a Hemavathi virgin till then…(had only read about it somewhere, and toyed with it on my keyboard a few times). Oops! sorry for the digression. **end brag**

I can’t recollect now, the krithi Sudha rendered in this raga. However, recently, I learnt that “madhura marikozhundhu vaasam” (enga ooru paatukaran, starring multi-colour-ramarajan) is based on this ragam.

Some krithis on this ragam, listed below:

• Kanno Kamalappu/(?)/Bombay Sisters
• Jaya Mangalam/Thyagaraja/Sowmya
• Karuna Jalade/Thyagaraja/Bombay Sisters, Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam, Mayavaram Sisters, Nityashree
• Yaaradithu Nee Azhuthai/(?)/MLV
• Pahi Pahi/Narayana Theerthar/Bombay Jayashree, Nityashree
• Madhuraashtakam/(?)/Nityashree
• Paravasama/Venkataramana Bhagavathar/Vasumathi Badrinathan
• Chittham Eppadiy/Vedanakayam Pillai/Lalgudi Jayaraman

Listen to Nadanamakriya [1], Nadanamakriya [2], Nadanamakriya [3], NNK-Instrumental. There are three different links (vocal) listed in MIO for the same ragam!

Veeravasantham a.k.a Varunapriya (Melakartha #24)

Aarohanam: S-R2-G2-M1-P-D3-N3-S

Avarohanam: S-N3-D3-P-M1-G2-R2-S

Listening to Sudha Raghunathan render Emani Pogaduthu (Thyagaraja), was truly magical and hair-raising…majorly due to the fact that I knew this krithi from Aatma – a Colonial Cousins album, which is where I came across this krithi in the first place, and had ever since been looking to find out what ragam this was composed in. I could stand (err..sit, rather) the excitement as she started singing Emani.. I just wanted to scream out “Oh my GOOOODDDD! I know this song, can you please tell me what ragam this is?” and as though she heard my question, Sudha herself announced the ragam at the end of the rendition. ahh! bliss…from the knowledge!

Listen to Sri Rama – Aatma [Colonial Cousins]

Listen to Emani Pogadhuthu – GNB

Listen to Emani Pogaduthu – MSG, Narmada

Balahamsa (Harikambodhi janya)

Aarohanam: S-R2-M1-P-D2-S

Avarohanam: S-N2-D2-P-M1-R2-M1-G3-S

Of course, I did not know such a ragam even existed till today (which is part of the reason behind this post). I am huge Colonial Cousins fan, and their first self titled album was such an exhilarating experience that I can never forget. It was during the summer holidays, probably summer of ’96… when I first listened to this album with a close friend of mine. From the very first moment I listened to the Parulanu Vedanu rendered by Hariharan at the start of the song, I was sold. However, only recently did I realize that the line which is being repeated was actually a carnatic krithi. After several repeated attempts at googling and posting on orkut forums, to decipher the lyrics and try to find out what song it was, I almost gave up…. until this afternoon. At this point I don’t even remember how I stumbled upon this discovery, but I finally found out the initial phrase was Parulanu Vedanu Patitapavana…and also that it is a krithi in the ragam Balahamsa. All I knew was it sounded a lot like Harikambhodhi… and then I found it is a janya of Harikambhodhi.

Listen to It’s gonna be alright – Colonial Cousins

Listen to krithis in Balahamsa -

• Dandamu Bettenura/Thyagaraja/BMK
• Ninu Vina/(?)/TP Vaidyanathan (no idea who this is, if you know, please do enlighten me)

**update – have added additional details about the krithis, for later reference, instead of just having just blind links, just in case the source web content changes in the future.