ragam for national anthem

[CHELLAM]

can some one tell me what is the raga for our national anthem 'jana gana mana "
thanking in advance

[cmlover]

Alaya Bilawal
(almost our Bilahari, Just use the Shankarabharanam notes)

[mdmurthy3]

it is yaman kalyan...
as the swaras include ma1 and ma2

it is not purely Sankarabharanam..

[cmlover]

I agree with you.It does sound lie yaman kalyani in many phrases.
But since it is based on C major, it was listed somewhere as Alaya Bilawal.
Tagore did not list a raga for it when he wrote. I wonder who tuned it!

[arasi]

Mostly yamankalyANi to my ears.

[Ponbhairavi]

CML wrote:

I wonder who tuned it![q

Alain Danielou, a french indologist, musicologist, Good friend of J Nehru

[mdmurthy3]

Some info on our National Anthem as per Wikipedia..

"Jana Gana Mana"[α] (Bengali: জন গণ মন, Sanskrit: जन गण मन) is the national anthem of India. Written in highly Sanskritised (Tatsama) Bengali, it is the first of five stanzas of a Brahmo hymn composed and scored by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. It was first sung in [1] Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress on 27 December 1911. "Jana Gana Mana" was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the Indian national anthem on 24 January 1950. 27 December 2011 marked the completion of 100 years of Jana Gana Mana since it was sung for the first time.[2][3]

The original poem written by Rabindranath Tagore was translated into Hindi by Abid Ali. The original Hindi version of the song Jana Gana Mana, translated by Ali and based on the poem by Tagore, was a little different. It was "Sukh Chain Ki Barkha Barase, Bharat Bhagya Hai Jaga....". Jana Gana Mana was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the Indian national anthem on 24 January 1950.[2][3][4] [5][6][7][8]

A formal rendition of the national anthem takes fifty-two seconds. A shortened version consisting of the first and last lines (and taking about 20 seconds to play) is also staged occasionally.[9] Tagore wrote down the English translation[10] of the song and along with Margaret Cousins (an expert in European music and wife of Irish poet James Cousins), set down the notation at Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh, which is followed only when the song is sung in the original slow rendition style of singing. However, when the National Anthem version of the song is sung, it is done in the traditional grandiose Martial Style of music.

[Lakshman]

Here is the complete text of the song and meaning:

janagaNa mana adhinAyaka jaya hE bhArata bhAgyavidhAtA

panjAba sindhu gujarAt marAThA drAviDa utkala vangA
vindhya himAcala yamunA gangA utkala jaladhi tarangA
tava shubha nAmE jAgE tava shubha Ashisha mage gAhE tava jaya gAtA
janagaNa mangala dAyaka jaya hE bhArata bhAgya vidhAtA
jaya hE jaya hE jaya hE jaya jaya jaya hE

aharaha tava AhvAna pracArita shuni tava udAra vANI
hindu bauddha sikha jaina pArasikha musalmAna kristAnI
pUraba paschima AsE tava simhAsana pAshE prEma hAra haya gAnthA
janagaNa aikya vidhAyaka jaya hE bhArata bhAgya vidhAtA
jaya hE jaya hE jaya hE jaya jaya jaya jaya hE

patana abhyudaya bandhura panthA yuga yuga dhAvati yAtrI
hE cira sArathi tava ratha cakrE mukharita patha dina rAtrI
dAruNa viplava mAjhE mI tava shankhadvani bAjE sankaTa duhkha trAtA
janagaNa mana patha paricAyaka jaya hE bhArata bhAgya vidhAtA
jaya hE jaya hE jaya hE jaya jaya jaya jaya hE

dhAra timira ghana nibiDa nishithE pIDita mUrchita dEshE
jAgrta chila tava avicala mangala nata nayanE animiSE
duhsvapnE AtankE raskSa karilE ankE snEhamayI tumi mAtA
janagaNa duhkha trAyaka jaya hE bhArata bhAya vidhAtA
jaya hE jaya hE jaya hE jaya jaya jaya jaya hE

rAtri prabhAtila udila ravicchavi pUrva udayagiri bhAlE
gAhE vihangama puNya samiraNa nava jIvana rasa DhalE
tava karuNAruNa rAge nidrita bhAtara jAgE tava caraNE nata mAthA
jaya jaya jaya hE jaya rAjEshvara bhArata bhAgya vidhAtA
jaya hE jaya hE jaya hE jaya jaya jaya jaya hE

meaning:

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,
Thou dispenser of India’s destiny

Thy name rouses the hearts
of the Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha,
of Dravid, Orissa and Bengal.
It echoes in the hills of the Vindyas and the Himalayas,
Mingles in the music of yamuna and Ganges,
And is chanted by the waves of the Indian sea.
They pray for thy blessing and sing thy praise
Thou dispenser of India’s destiny.
Victory, Victory, Victory to thee.

Day and night, thy voice goes out from land to land,
Calling Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains round thy throne
And Parsees, Mussalmans and chjristians.
Offerings are brought to thy shrine by the East and the West
To be woven in a garden of love.
Thou bringest the hearts of all peoples
Into the harmony of one’s life,
Thou dispenser of India’s destiny,
Victory, Victory, Victory to thee.

Eternal charioteer, thou divest man’s history
Along the road rugged with rises and falls of nations,
Amidst all tribulations and terror
Thy trumpet sounds to hearten those that despair and droop,
And guide all people in their paths of peril and pilgrimage.
Victory, Victory, Victory to thee.

When the long dreary night, was dense with gloom
And the country lay still in a stupor,
Thy Mother’s arms held her,
Thy wakeful eyes bet upon her face,
Till she was rescued from the dark evil dreams
That oppressed her spirit,
Thou dispenser of India’s destiny
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

The night dawns , the sun rises in the East,
The birds sing, the morning breeze brings a stir of new life.
Touched by the golden rays of your love
India wakes up and bends her head at thy feet.
Thou king of all kings,
Thou dispenser of India’s destiny,
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

[cmlover]

Thanks Ponbhairavi!
Is there any French influence in the tune he set?

I agree it is sanskritized Bengali.
I am glad we are not singing it as
"jono goNo mano adhi nAyAko jayo hO...
Tagore did not know there is a South India!
(I am not starting a controversy but I do feel left out

[Pasupathy]

Thy name rouses the hearts
of the Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha,
of Dravid, Orissa and Bengal

.

One of my close friends used to complain that the order of places is "counterclockwise" ( apradakshaNa) ....I used to console him that
looking down from Canada into those Indian places on the other side of the globe, it is pRadakshaNa!

[arasi]

True

[Ponbhairavi]

Tagore He has packed the whole deccan plateau in dravida. The contrast becomes poignant when we read Bharathi who has hailed Tagore and Aurobindo and Ghandhi. Bharathi is the only indian poet of the last century to have thought of National integration and visualized bharath matha as a whole inking each region with, its economic or cultural identity.
There is hardly any perceptible influence with the french national anthem excepting the band march. rhythm .Danielou had learnt to play sithar and veena but he is an ethno musicologist who has studied various musical systems the world over.

[Ponbhairavi]

post 10-

Thy name rouses the hearts
of the Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha,
of Dravid, Orissa and Bengal

Not only CML but many states have reason to feel left out. That is the danger of starting an enumeration which should be finished at least with et cetera.

[cmlover]

Unquestionably Bharathy is the National integrator. Pity even his verses were not adopted by TN as Tamizh taay vaazhtthu for reasons of caste (ridiculous) and they chose bharatidaasan! The unkindest cut of all is adopting Tagore's verse written to welcome the prince of Wales! Of course Nehru, the autocrat could overrule all!
A bengali verse tuned by a french man written in honor of an English Prince is our Patriotic National Anthem
That is Global Integration

[Ponbhairavi]

A silver line is that it is not Robindroshangeeth

[hydkarthik]

Can anyone tell in which raga is Sri Lankan National Anthem composed in?

[vasanthakokilam]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JslPiA9mPls ( the lyrics are quite Sanskrit'ish )

The first few seconds sounded like MD's nottuswara western based songs in Shankarabharanam but it quickly turned to the tune of Om Jai Santoshi Maata ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upTHGwhyXC8 ) and then back to Nottuswara style Shankarabharanam. That pattern seems to repeat.

The tune for Om Jai Santoshi Maata also seem to use only Shankarabharanam notes in a very limited range. The highest it seems to go seems to be 'pa or da'. So this can be one of those 'constrained' shankarabharana like ragas.

The one that comes close is Navroj as in here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_QHOyrSNl8

Given all this, I guess we can pin the Sri Lankan National Anthem as Navroj ( but with a leaning for flat notes )

others please comment and correct.

[violinvicky]

I agree that pradhi madhyamam surfaces on a couple of occassions in our national anthem. But the official version performed by Indian national army is very tightly arranged as per western classical harmony. And that arrangement is predominantly major scale based (sankarabharanam). An article that I wrote on our national anthem (albeit in Tamil, My apologies for non-Tamil readers) can be found here: http://solvanam.com/?p=10216
It includes a couple of harmonically arranged rendering and answer to some of the trivia asked here about its origin/ who set it to tune etc.,

[cmlover]

Thanks for those historical bits. The controversy deepens!
I heard once TMK sang it carnatic style and created quite a stir!
Does it fit in Adi TALa?

[violinvicky]

Technically the western classical time signature is marked as a 'C' which means its 4/4. Western classical doesn't have the concept of extended 4/4s treated as one cycle. So strictly speaking it can be treated as Chatusra eka tala (chastusra nadai). But inline with the idiom of fitting one line of sahithyam to one kriya, Adi talam fits the national anthem perfectly.

[vasanthakokilam]

Makes sense violinvicky.

I assume you meant to write 'inline with the idiom of fitting one line of sahithyam to one thala cycle'.

[violinvicky]

Hi VK:
Indeed, I meant one thala cycle. Thanks for the correction.