Tapestry of rAgAs : a fancy visualization

[Enna_Solven]

I have seen quite frequently, even in this forum, mukhAri being portrayed an azhugai (weeping) rAgam. I dispute it as I find it to be an essential and important rAgam in the Carnatic system, capable of depicting different rasAs. I am very fond of this rAgam. Hence in its defense, here is a crazy thought.

I can visualize Carnatic music system as a magnificent Kanchipuram paTTu puDavai (silk saree) and this is how it looks like:

The body in blue (mukhAri) and green (kambhOji) (mayil kazhutthu - peacock neck color), highly ornate pallu (shankarAbharanam & kalyAni), weighty double border (bhairavi and thODi) and the body decorated in intricate leaf and flower motifs (kharaharapriyA). The pure silk thread is the ray of bhAvam that holds everything together. The scintillations that come about are the various other rAgams.

You are welcome to design your own!

[arasi]

Enna solven,
Very nice imagery. To me, yes, some rAgAs conjure up a tapestry effect but more are in the region of textures which are rock-like, each distinct. Some soft ones too, like abstract flowers or actual ones!

[srinivasrgvn]

Enna_Solven, Enna Solven?

Although I visualize ragas as colors, this kind of an image is new and nice.

You said,

I have seen quite frequently, even in this forum, mukhAri being portrayed an azhugai (weeping) rAgam. I dispute it as I find it to be an essential and important rAgam in the Carnatic system, capable of depicting different rasAs. I am very fond of this rAgam.

I am in full support of this and to prove it, let me present to you the third stanza of my poem on Maanji(which I published in the forum an year ago or so, but now it's not there, anyway!)

My sister, who is synonymous to “cry”,
was proved by many that she can try
many other emotions and now,
she is laughing at my vow,
that I will still be me,
and will not change because of destiny!

[Enna_Solven]

Thanks Arasi. Yes, the major rAgams are all distinct. My attempt was to include mukhAri in the gallery of great rAgams, banking on the fact that Thyagaraja himself wrote different songs in mukhAri depicting valour, wonder, longing & of course pathos, which are very much part of life.

Thanks srinivasrgvn. The mAnji poem is good. Probably mAnji remains limited as there are many phrase/speed restrictions as per TMK's lecdem. I like mAnji too, though it has very few songs in it. My favorite is Ramachandrena sung by MSS.

[arasi]

For all those who equate mukhAri to dirge material, there are many of us who love the rAgam for its many different shades of expression. Isn't it our spring cuckoo's favorite rAgam? I have been told off several times by others for being indifferent to her sister. I am developing a liking for her nowadays, but I love her sister any day!

[kssr]

Yes. There is some azhugai effect in Mukhari. But we love it all the same. Anyone familiar with indian tele mega serials will know it. The treacherous eyes-rolling maamiyar and the "good" d-i-l .... mukhari....mukhari!!

Your Ragamaligai saree is most interesting. I however have two concerns:

1. The colours should be fast colours such that they do not mix up and result in apaswarams.
2. Which is the raga to be chosen for the blouse?

[vasanthakokilam]

kssr, I would even dispute there is any azhugai effect in Mukhari. Closer words are probably urukkam, karuNai etc. It amazes me that Mukhari is even remotely associated with azhugai. It bothers me as well to think of the possibility that it is more a culturally ingrained stereotype rather than having any musical merit. As with any stereotype, people start repeating it and believing in it because everyone else around them mentions that steroetype. I will readily agree that Subhapantuvarali, though capable of expressing deep bakthi and other emotions, can be put to use to express real sad situations. But I do not get that with Mukhari. Somehow Mukhari beats Subhapantuvarali as the first raga that comes to many people's minds when it comes to azhugai situations or that is the first emotion that people associate with Mukhari. It has gotten so bad that people hesitate to sing Mukhari in marriage, engagement and other celebratory functions. I just do not get it. The conversation even goes like this. "Oh, that song sounds great. What raga is that? It is Mukhari. Mukhari? Why would she sing that azugai raga in a kalyANa Kutcheri?... ( ....well you just said it sounded great, so what is the problem... )"

>Anyone familiar with indian tele mega serials will know it. The treacherous eyes-rolling maamiyar
>and the "good" d-i-l .... mukhari....mukhari!!

Which ones you are referring to? If you can point to some youtube video of it with Mukhari as the background music for such scenes, I would like to see it and hear it. Thanks kssr.

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Here is charanam 3 of Oothukadu Venkatasubbiar’s composition ‘viSamakkAra kaNNan’:-

pakkattu vITTup-peNNai azhaippAn
mukhAri rAgam enakkadu teriyAdenrAl
nekkuruga kiLLi viTTu (avaL)
vikki vikki azhum pOdu idANDi mukhAri enbAn

[arasi]

PB,
I have a feeling--as with a few other songs of UTRukkADu (kaNNanin vanamum, kaviyin kaRpanai UTRum that this isn't an original line! I have a gut feeling that the kavi would not have imagined mukhAri to be an azhugai rAgam either. Highly emotive, yes!

[vasanthakokilam]

Arasi, right on. It does not even make much sense, even after allowance for humor. Humor most often needs a stereotype so the punch line is easily relatable by most people. All this shows is, when this was composed / line added in, the mukhari false stereotype had already fully set in. My gut feel also says it is not an OVK original line, but if it is... oh well... it is a strike against OVK.

[arasi]

VK,
Yes! When he had such rich lodes in his creative mind to tap, why would he go for a cliche? An anachronism too for that matter!
As you say, it would have been one of the twentieth century humorists who was not that familiar with the beauty of the rAgam and so the expression stuck, I guess. Perhaps because the rAgam was used in musical plays in tragic scenes often.
I have been humming MukhAri--several of the songs which come to mind evoke awe, pathos (different from moaning, mourning) and majesty too (let not sister bhairavi alone enjoy that status).

[VK RAMAN]

Moshav - an LA band - Jewish: I happened to attend one of their concerts recently and I could visualize how creatively they have mixed south/north Indian, middleeast and U.S. raggae in their songs. It was very nice.

[vasanthakokilam]

>Perhaps because the rAgam was used in musical plays in tragic scenes often.

I do not even want to acknowledge that as the source of the stereotype since I do not see how that will be a choice when there are other ragas much more suited to such situations. One possibility is the opposite, somehow the stereotype got set and that caused some not so knowledgeable people to use sad lyrics and a very diluted form of the raga, if at all, for tragic situations. So more than the melody, it is the mention of the raga with contextual sad lyrics which propagate the stereotype.

There is also another possibility ( just my wild speculation ). There is another mukhari I have heard mentioned which is a vivadhi raga, which was in vogue many centuries back. I can see how vivadithwam can evoke sad emotions in some people. And somehow over time that Mukhari's aesthetics got mistakenly associated with the Mukhari we all know now.

[arasi]

VK,
Well, let's pretend we are staging a musical--there is a heart-rending scene with a song in it. kEdAragowLai might do, and sahAnA. kAnaDa? asAveri? nAda nAmakriyai, mukhAri? They are all possibilities because they are highly emotive to suit an emotionally charged scene! We can think of dozen others--why, one of my favorites like yadukula kAmbOdi too. Of all the above and more, wonder why mukhari alone came to be called a tear-jerker
Reminds me. I thought jOg was such a sad sounding rAg when I first heard it. On hearing it a few times, I saw a nATTai kind of majesty arising from it! Taking away a rAgam with us and not thinking of it in terms of a particular singer/player or associating it with a particular song but making it our own without the labels can reveal more about a rAgam for us to comprehend its different textures.
A slight digression here. In layam which has its specific boundaries, if one can create magic which transcends the laid down rules, a Ragam in the hands of a highly gifted singer is his/her own oyster for creating a new pearl of a presentation over and over again when the rAgam is sung or played!
Though an amateur, I bet you have had your moments like that at certain times when you picked up your flute, Suji her violin, Srini his vINai and all of you in the forum who sing and play

[vasanthakokilam]

Arasi: Excellent point about those ragas which can be employed for such scenes. With a slight twist here and elongation of a note there, the emotion changes within the spectrum of possibilities the raga provides.

You mentioned Sahana. My own experience with Sahana is quite telling. It was quite frustrating for me to not be able to play a good sahana and that is due to my own limitations of techniques to bring out the sahana essence. One day, as an accident, I discovered that if I moved the Sa to the lower pa position, I can get sahana aesthetics much better. As a side effect, I get to experience on my own, how small changes in execution of some key phrases in the pUrvAngam changes the rasa it produces.

>A slight digression here. In layam which has its specific boundaries, if one can create magic which transcends the laid
>down rules, a Ragam in the hands of a highly gifted singer is his/her own oyster for creating a new pearl of a presentation
>over and over again when the rAgam is sung or played!

That is some food for thought on the point about layam you raise. Yes, if layam aesthetics can be recreated in a multitude of hues, in spite of the strict timing rules inherent in any rhythm, melody side should even have more such possibilities. In addition, there is a cross section between the two. The same melodic sequence, laid on two different rhythmic pattern, can sound totally different and evoke different emotions. Metaphorically, the raga is like a play dough and one shapes it using layam to provide for different shapes, sizes and figures.

[arasi]

VK,
I would have said it myself about the effects different blending and bendingof the two can create, but you know my utter limitations in layam which makes me hesitate before I say anything about it!
Very true. That's why kaNakku (even to me) appeals in small doses and when the singer steps down from calculations and comes back to emote the lyrics, I'm very happy. The contrast enhances the import of the words too, at times. I can understand it's fun because I try it myself, with not a soul within earshot, of course.
Your sahAnA experience is interesting. A happy accident, I would say. There is one song of mine in durbAri which sounds much better when I sing it in a higher Sruti. Then I try madhyama Sruti (not as popular now as in earlier days when for us kids, it would signal the end of the concert). That sruti is too high for the song and the bhAvam of the rAgam, I feel. Crazy perhaps, but makes me wonder why there's no gAndhAra Sruti to suit such oddities