Meanings of raga names

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girish_a
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Meanings of raga names

Post by girish_a »

I'm curious to understand the meanings of the names of our ragas. Can we list them down here? I am wondering what names like Aarabhi, VaraaLi etc. mean.

I will start with HindoLa - HindoLa means "decorative swing"

manikan7
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by manikan7 »

varALi - in Tamil is a variation of varuthal like vArAnai which is a part of piLLaittamizh tradition. We sing varALi to ask the god to come and grace us. Similar extensions to varALi antha ragas. punnAgavarALi, kunthalavarALi etc.......

melam72
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by melam72 »

Bhupalam - Bhupaala means Ruler (refer to Sri Vishwanatham - Vaidyalinga Bhupala)

Saranga means camphor

ratanabhinav
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by ratanabhinav »

I thought Saranga meant 'bow' - like Lord Rama's bow...
What does Thodi mean.....kApi ,? , mukhari ? bEgada ......

ratanabhinav
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by ratanabhinav »

vasanta - the raga which is like spring (season )
mohanam - enchanting
kamboji- raga from kamboja land
ranjani- pleasing
karnaranjani pleasing to the ears
kalyani- auspicious
saramathi- essence of intellect
kharaharapriya- favourite of Killer of Kara , ie, Lord Rama
nalinakanthi- lusture of lotus

melam72
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by melam72 »

ratanabhinav wrote: 29 May 2017, 12:06 kamboji- raga from kamboja land
Also refers to Mahalakshmi, as well as a great amount of happiness (Ambhoja).

HarishankarK
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by HarishankarK »

Saranga means spotted deer - Kara drutha Saarangam

vilomachapu
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by vilomachapu »

Saranga is also the name of Vishnu's bow. That is why he is called sArangapANi.

vilomachapu
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by vilomachapu »

kharaharapriya- favourite of Killer of Kara , ie, Lord Rama
Favourite of killer of Kara who is Lord Rama yes. But the favourite of Rama is Lakshmana. That is why Thyagaraja composed 'mitri bhAgyamE' which is in praise of Lakshmana in the raga Karaharapriya. Karaharapriya refers to Lakshmana.

ratanabhinav
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by ratanabhinav »

vilomachapu wrote: 29 May 2017, 18:55

But the favourite of Rama is Lakshmana.
Sita is also Rama's favourite .....maybe kharaharapriya also Rama's favourite !

rshankar
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by rshankar »

vilomachapu wrote: 29 May 2017, 18:52Saranga is also the name of Vishnu's bow. That is why he is called sArangapANi.
sAranga is a corruption - vishNu's bow is SArnga - he's referred to SArnga-dhanva in the vishNu sahasranAma and elsewhere. Siva is the true sArangapANi - he holds a deer/antelope called sAranga (invoked by the 3000 dIkshitas of the taDavan in cidambaram to tear into Siva) in one of his hands (in one of the rAgamAlika compositions, pArvati is correctly identified as sArangapANi dEvi in the segment in sAranga).

rshankar
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by rshankar »

melam72 wrote: 29 May 2017, 15:13Also refers to Mahalakshmi, as well as a great amount of happiness (Ambhoja).
In which language?

melam72
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by melam72 »

rshankar wrote: 30 May 2017, 02:11 In which language?
Sanskrit. RK Shrirakumar has composed a pallavi - 'Ma Harikambhoja Bhavathinuthe, Lalithe Mamava Ra' incorporating the Mahalakshmi meaning. As for the happiness meaning, I might be mistaken; I remember reading this in one of the old threads here (though that refers to Kambhodi).

rshankar
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by rshankar »

In Sri Shriram's pallavi, mA is lakshmi (mA ramaNan = vishNu, umA ramaNan = Siva) and so is ramA when the pallavi loops back on itself.

If I understand it correctly, the pallavi means, "please protect (ava) me (mAm), Oh lalitA, who is worshipped (nutE) by (ra)mA, vishNu (hari), sarasvati (kA), brahmA (ambhOja), Siva (bhava), and many others (Adi)"
It should be bhavAdi and not bhavathi.
So neither harikAmbhoja, kAmbhoja, or ambhoja refer to lakshmi or happiness as far as I can tell.

Ranganayaki
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by Ranganayaki »

rshankar wrote: 30 May 2017, 17:40 In Sri Shriram's pallavi, mA is lakshmi (mA ramaNan = vishNu, umA ramaNan = Siva) and so is ramA when the pallavi loops back on itself.
I am no expert in Tamil, Ravi, but I never thought Ma Ramanan referred to Lakshmi as Maa. That doesn't seem elegant, doesn't sound like good Tamil as a word in poetry that is otherwise in elevated Tamil . I thought Maa Ramanan would mean the great pleaser, (of bhaktas or Lakshmi) or the great lover, similar to "Maavali," in the varnam 'Devar Munivar' (Shanmukhapriya) of LGJ'S - "Maavali valimaiyai taalaal aLanda Tirumal" (Maavali = Mahabali)

rshankar
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by rshankar »

Ranganayaki wrote: 31 May 2017, 04:36I am no expert in Tamil, Ravi, but I never thought Ma Ramanan referred to Lakshmi as Maa.
mA is lakshmi - mAdhava = husband (dhava) of lakshmi (mA)....in the song of Sri Sivan's in hindoLam, he refers to both vishNu and Siva alternately - mA ramaNan (vishNu), umA ramaNan (Siva), mAra janakan (vishNu), kumAra janakan (Siva), malai mEl uRaibavan (Siva), pArkaDal alai mEl tuyilbavan (vishNu) etc...mA is not used in the sense of mahA.

pvs
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by pvs »

rshankar wrote: 30 May 2017, 17:40 In Sri Shriram's pallavi, mA is lakshmi (mA ramaNan = vishNu, umA ramaNan = Siva) and so is ramA when the pallavi loops back on itself.

If I understand it correctly, the pallavi means, "please protect (ava) me (mAm), Oh lalitA, who is worshipped (nutE) by (ra)mA, vishNu (hari), sarasvati (kA), brahmA (ambhOja), Siva (bhava), and many others (Adi)"
It should be bhavAdi and not bhavathi.
So neither harikAmbhoja, kAmbhoja, or ambhoja refer to lakshmi or happiness as far as I can tell.
with the disclaimer that my sanskrit is very limited, I think:

ambhoja = ambho + ja = water + born = lotus.
Brahma will be ambhoja- bhava = lotus born
hari ka ambhoja bhava = born of the navel lotus of Hari?
(I'm not sure if ka means who,which, what or whose; or maybe some or all of those!)
Harika Ambhoja bhavathi nuthe : worshiped by Brahma

RaviSri
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by RaviSri »

kA refers to Saraswati and mA refers to Mahalakshmi. This is in Sanskrit.

kAmAkShi means one who has Saraswati and Mahalakshmi as her two eyes. This is what DIkshitar indicates in his hindOLam song. The idea is expanded in the anupallavi - shAradA ramA nayanE

pvs
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by pvs »

sri RaviSri:
Yes I don't dispute that kA is Saraswati. the same kA or kha is also used in other meanings (said pronouns), happiness, even to denote Brahma at times.
In my interpretation of the pallavi line, a pronoun would fit the ka, better than Saraswati i believe.
ra at the end would mean bestow and ma at the beginning would be happiness. and the ra+ma would make it a loop back and could mean mahalakshmi (rama). hard to decode these without knowing the perfect pallavi version. but exciting nonetheless!

Ranganayaki
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by Ranganayaki »

Thanks, Ravi.. I did see wherever i looked that the meaning of maa was given as Lakshmi. I did realize I was mistaken. I did not mind that my interpretation did not stick to the parallel descriptions of vishnu and Shiva in every line, but i should have. I didn't know that Maa was an actual word that meant Lakshmi (or Kaa Saraswati).

Aditya Jois
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by Aditya Jois »

I would like to start by saying that this question has made me discover how blind I was to the biggest and basic aspects of music. Though I have been listening to all kinds of names of ragas, never once did I bother to look their meaning up in a dictionary.
Now that I did search for meaning of some ragas, it didn't make any sense to me. Although I did understand some raga names such as Mayamalavagowla, Jonpuri, Kambhoji which are too easy understand. This is because they are basically named after the place ascribed to that raga. Some raga names just didn't make sense. For example why is bhairavi named so? Yes, it true that She is the sixth of the ten Mahaa Vidyaas. It is also true that the raga itself creates an ambience filled with intensity in the singer and listener's mind. Is this analogy or an experiential description so to say, the only basis for naming the raga as such? When I started thinking upon this more, my mind wandered upon music therapy for a bit. At first some names started making sense. The best example for that would be Malahari. Malahari easily translates to 'toxic remover'. Here the intention of Sri Purandaradaasa in his geetas have to be appreciated. The raga Kalyani is said to boost immunity and cure/ reduce the intensity of most diseases. I find that this name given to it may be related the temple ponds which are also called kalyani( at least here in Karnataka). Temple kalyanis also obviously have such divine energy in them. It is a fact that taking a dip in Kalyanis would help us to erase the negative energies of our aura. Then again I was left nowhere when Neelambari came to my mind. The raga Neelaambari is used to cure insomnia. Neelaambari simply means a woman who is clad in Blue black clothes. What connection does the name have to sleeplessness?
Some Raga names may be easily translated such as Mohana (Pleasing), Ranjini(Entertainer),Chitta Ranjini(Entertaining to the mind), Karna Ranjini( Entertaining to the ears or does it mean that it is pleasing to Karna from Mahabharatha? :) ), Shanmukhapriya (Liked by Lord Shanmukha).
I choose to write different reply in the same thread for some other ragas soon.
Last edited by Aditya Jois on 04 Jun 2017, 10:44, edited 1 time in total.

Aditya Jois
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Re: Meanings of raga names

Post by Aditya Jois »

I hope that some people might have understood by now that the bigger question is why the ragas were named so rather than what their names mean. Getting straight to the point I would like to list out some raagas and the questions I may have regarding them.

1. Shankaraabharana- This literally translates to Ornament of Lord Shankara. Does it mean that the raga itself acts as an ornament to Him when sung with devotion or does it represent/ indicate one of His ornaments? Some may argue that Lord Shiva doesn't wear any ornaments and all that he wears has a profound meaning in terms of yoga and vairaagya embedded in them. This is of course true. But if He doesn't wear any ornaments nor doesn't like wearing one just for the sake of showing off, what is this raga's name trying to tell us?

2. Hamsadhwani- Sound of the swan.

3. Shree Ranjini- Entertaining to Goddess Lakshmi(Shree).

4. Kaamavardhini- This literally translates to ' One which increases desire.' What kind of desire may be my next question obviously.

5. Vasanta- Vasanta translates as the spring season. This raga does have that vibrancy and radiance in it just like the spring season when all of nature is extremely vibrant and joyous. Vasanta is said to cure stomach related problems too.

6. Vaachaspathi- Vaachaspathi actually means ' Master of speech.' Does this mean that this raga bestows upon Vak Siddhi on the singer?

7. Malaya Maarutha- Malaya means mountain. Maarutha means wind. So it can be a descriptive name as the raaga's nature is aptly described by the name.

8. Shiva Ranjini- This easily means 'Entertaining to Lord Shiva.' This makes me wonder as to how profound this raaga must be because it is said to be liked by the Ascetic of the highest possible order. Shiva is the greatest Ascetic, the source of yoga (Adi Yogi). If this particular raaga pleases Him, I would like to know what quality of the raaga makes it so.

9. Amrithavarshini- This translates as ' The one which rains Amritha.' When the devas and daanavaas struggled so hard to churn Amritha from the divine ocean, does singing a raga in a particular fashion make the same happen? I know that ancient raagas wouldn't be simply named. I always have this belief that the name means something more all the time.

10. Souraashtram- This may be named after the Sourashtra region in west India.

11. Keeravani- I looked up the meaning of Keeraha in a sanskrit dictionary. Keeraha means binding. Keeravani may therefore mean Binding speech. Now what could this raga bind us to? Some say that this raga gives a person spirituality. When spirituality is all about letting loose of all things, what could this raaga give us more?

I hope fellow rasikas would be so kind as to understand my desperation and answer all of these questions as soon as possible.

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