Best mela raga pair

[narayan]

Another "mirror, mirror on the wall" question. In the katapayadi mela scheme, which is the most noteworthy pair of suddha madhyama/prati madhyama ragas? Well, there's a clear winner of this, Sankarabharanam-Kalyani. Even those who don't quite fancy Kalyani - and there are some here with this quirk - the dominance of this pair cannot be denied. So the real question is which pair is second!

My vote is for Kiravani-Simhendramadhyamam, from various subjective considerations and also to some extent, the variety of 'big' songs in the two ragas. Todi may be the biggest raga of them all, but who even knows what the prati madhyama equivalent it. People like me have to look it up! Harikambhoji-Ramapriya is OK, but too few songs in RP and HK is overshadowed by Kambhoji anyhow. Not particularly a Kharaharapriya fan! Not Mayamalagowla-Pantuvarali because ... So anyhow, feel free to offer contrary opinions.

[nri]

You asked which pair holds the second position in suddha-prati madhyama mela raga pairs? Still I would say that your question is not the fairest of all, as the second position is also without much contention. We are forced to agree with your choice, as none other is comparable. A fairer question would be which mela pair holds the third position?
First: Dheerashankarabharanam – Mechakalyani (Non-contested)
Second: Kiravani – Simhendramadhyamam (Non-contested)
Third: Kharaharapriya – Hemavati (MMI being a favorite singer, there is no reason to dislike Kharahapriya) – This is my pick.
(Nominees were Dhenuka-Shubhapantuvarali, Mayamalagowlai-Pantuvarali, Kharaharapriya-Hemavati, Harikhambhoji-Ramapriya)
Incidentally, yesterday morning I was trying to think of non-madhyama ragas that share the same swaras in Aro and ava, but with different sthanas. Started a separate thread for that.

nri

[srikant1987]

OF COURSE it is MMG-panturvarALi!!!!!!

[srikant1987]

harikAmbhOji's pratimadhyama equivalent is, I believe, vAcaspati, and that pair should come an easy third.

rAmapriya should be paired up with cakravAham (both r1s)

[narayan]

harikAmbhOji's pratimadhyama equivalent is, I believe, vAcaspati, and that pair should come an easy third.

rAmapriya should be paired up with cakravAham (both r1s)

Oops! Sorry about that. So my second choice is not even third in your list!

[bilahari]

ShankarAbharaNam-kalyANi is number one for me, too. KIravANi-simmhEndramadhyamam is second also! I guess harikAmbOji-vAcaspati comes a very distant third.

[srikant1987]

cArukEsi-riShabhapriya is a good pair too.

[sureshvv]

vagadeeswari / nasikabhushani anyone?

[srikant1987]

No! Not that, please, not that! I'm personally very much in favour of banning all R3 ragas. (An occasional nATTai wouldn't be too bad though.)

One other good pair I can think of is Shanmukhapriya and naThabhairavi. This is a strange pair in that the shuddhamadhyama rAga brings the pair down. I think this peculiar feature is also shared by most G2 ragas.

Narayan, this is a little late, but interesting thread.

[satyabalu]

* Endorsing all stated earlier, I attach Nata Bhairavi-Shunmugapriya as a stand alone pair in emotive touch&scholarly approach taken together with their janyas(ALL without exception) - Marga/ Hindolam,Saramathi .Bhairavi,Manji(20?) ,A.Bhairavi,Suddha Dhanyasi&Chintamani (56?)
*My yardstick is not one of nos.Don't we accept SS as one of Trinities not by sheer volume?

[bilahari]

Srikant, good point about shaNmugapriya-naTabhairavi. I far prefer the prati ma version!

VAgadIswari is quite beautiful (Emani's RTP comes to mind). But nAsikAbhUSani...

[arunk]

I personally prefer the sEnAvati/gavAmbodhi combination most

[satyabalu]

I personally prefer the sEnAvati/gavAmbodhi combination most

Can you elaborate?

[arunk]

Sorry - that was a joke - I just simply picked a pair that had two very obscure mela ragas.

[srikant1987]

satyabalu,

I think most of us went by the mELakarta rAga alone -- rather than taking the whole mELa, with all the janya rAgas.

Indeed, naThabhairavi has beautiful janyas -- I like to include mukhAri and husEni for naThabhairavi: as I would also prefer to give shuddhadhanyAsi to kharaharapriya.

If we went by the janya rAgas, harikAmbhOji and khpriya have enough meritorious janya rAgas to beat all others, in spite of their corresponding pratimadhyama mELas having so little. +

Not Shankarabharanam-Kalyani, I guess! Mohanam, Bilahari, Begada, Athana, Arabhi, Sama, Devagandhari, Shuddha Saveri etc., are just too weighty -- though we could consider putting some of these in harikAmbhOji too.

[kartik]

Suryakantham-Gamanasrama or Chalanattai-Rasikapriya as the third for me, no doubt SKB-Kalyani and Keeravani-Simhendramadhyama as the first and second.

[sruthi]

Another two interesting pairs:
Sarasangi - Lathangi
Gowrimanohari - Dharmavati