raghupahty ragahava rajaram - raga identification help

[Vijayakumar]

Can anyone let me know the ragam of the standard rendering of "raghupahty ragahava rajaram pathitha pavan seetharam" song?

[vasanthakokilam]

misra pilu, not that I have great familiarity with Piloo, but this is what it is commonly tagged as. Others, please confirm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEce1zwM1W0

Piloo is supposed to have a lot of similarity with kApi ( or it is the same as current day CM kApi) but I only sense some faint resemblance to it..

Look here for other film songs in piloo to establish some references in this kind of light song category.
http://chandrakantha.com/raga_raag/film ... iluA.shtml

There are a couple of my favorite songs there. A few notable ones.

'Ai Meri Johara Zabeen, Tujhe Maaloom Nahin' (Waqt), the initial 30 seconds of humming has good kApi fragrance. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoHFPA90hqI )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjwxslN8y7w ( wow, did not know till now this is in piloo )

[arasi]

VK, Thanks for all the pIlus! The last one? I don't hear much of it

Another moving pIlu was sung by Dilipkumar himself along with Latha in the film musAfir (a classy fim) in which he starred: lAgi na chUTE. Please listen to that!

[vasanthakokilam]

Found it. Thanks Arasi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XKbqmT4J4g

[Lakshman]

My understanding is that it is mishra gArA and not mishra pIlu.

[arasi]

Lakshman,
I don't know what it is, but it has touches of pIlu, and that's all, I feel. I hear it more in Burman's and Dilip Kumar's singing!

[Vijayakumar]

thanks a lot members for all your responses.

Interestingly when i googled, i found some threads saying it as "Jaijaivanthi" . can I get your views on this too please? Incidentally there is a song in Viswaroopam movie on this tune..the kathak song...

[vasanthakokilam]

We went through the same speculations with respect to that Viswaroopam song as well: http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=20973

[vasanthakokilam]

I encountered this abhang by R&G in Pilu: http://swaratala.blogspot.com/2007/05/r ... rance.html
This has a lot of similarity to RRRR though there are parts of this that are not in RRRR

Lakshman, About gara, I found this reference: http://swaratala.blogspot.com/2007/05/r ... rance.html

It looks like gara and pilu are close together already and given the general liberties assumed with any 'misra' ragas, misra gArA and misra pilu may not be distinguishable!

But the Jaijayavanthi seems to be thrown in the mix in this discussion as well. Is jaijayavanthi same as Dwijavanthi? If so, I do not see how that enters here since it has a unique identify which is not shared by this song. ( to my ears )

[gobilalitha]

Arasi,Lagi Na chute has more traces of bhairavi(hm)

[arasi]

GBL,
Good to hear from you.
Well, this is it. In classical music, any slight deviation sticks out. In light music, where HM rAgAs are used, colored by other rAgAs (overlapping them?), they are readily labeled 'misra something', is my guess. To my ears, pIlu is more appealing, that' all!

VK,
As far as I know, both are the same--jaijaivanthi and jujAvanthi.

[rshankar]

Two questions:
Lji is the rAg garA, or gharA?
And, isn't very essence of this rAg the song tErE mErE sapnE from Guide?

[srikanthj]

Raga garA and pIlu are fairly close, even more so their misra versions. Further, garA itself is treated differently by different artists, for example Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Bannerjee. Ravi Shankar's garA has notes that are practically the same as pIlu.

Coming to Raghupati Raghava RajaRam, I feel it is closer to pIlu. But again given the misra aspect, each artist bring some anya swaras so that no two versions seem exactly the same.

Here is a wonderful rendition by SBalachander: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvFjMxZOOKw
Compare it with his Jagadodharana (one of my all time favorites): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us4Qgiv2_Xc - the alapanai has parts which are really pIlu (the closeness between pIlu and CM kApi as remarked in an earlier post)

Also, while the "Mahatma Gandhi" version id Raghupati Raghava is the one mostly sung now, the "original" was compoased popularized by Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, who also sang it in a lot of Congress meetings. Here is a great rendition by his son, Pt Dattatreya Vishnu Paluskar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6lFVvA_O4c
I feel there is more than a hint of jaijaivanti here, esp in the initial sloka.

[vasanthakokilam]

I feel there is more than a hint of jaijaivanti here, esp in the initial sloka.

Oh, yes. Very much so in the initial sloka.

Thanks for the links srikanthj. That SB Veena version is, oh my goodness, one of a kind. Self taught geniuses have that awesome extra charm and that delightful and endearing irreverence. From the initial single pluck traversal of the raga contour of many swaras (which does indeed plucks your heart strings) to a pluck per swara excitement towards the end (which moves your body). What a contrast in rasa he creates in a matter of 10 minutes!

I wonder if the other such genius Mali and Balachandar have ever interacted with each other or even better, played together. That would be something.