Avaro : S N3 D2 P M2 G3 R1 S - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG3XMgpmT2k
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And the going is totally tough for "gamana-shrama"...
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Why did such a fate befall the 53rd mElakarta rAgA, and not even a vivAdi one at that, one that should be straightforward to elaborate? Well it's because a) This rAgA is really a very new one, and b) because of that cousin of this rAgA (namely, gamakakriyA alias pUrvikalyANi) -- so well established is gamakakriyA that it has totally swallowed up the entire farm, leaving gamanashramA with nothing but a PDNS for itself. In fact, one could totally get away singing plenty of pUrvikalyANi in this and the audience would never wise up until one hits PDNS, if they look for it that is....
In fact, get the P out of the way, and you get hamsAnandi - and so gamanashramA gets a further stab from the back(robbed by its own "offspring" no less), often sounding like hamsAnandi at some places if handled in that manner. And with the refreshingly different flavour caused by eliminating the P, the end result is that hamsAnandi is in a different category of popular compared to gamanashramA.
And to add to its woes, it doesn't help that all the major compositions are all in pUrvikalyANI / gamakakriyA. Therefore gamanashramA as the new pretender to the crown has many mountains to climb before it will ever escape the shadow of gamakakriyA. That's what happens when you're so late you arrive at the fag end of the party and are left with the last of the potato chips, on someone else's plate....
So the compositions in gamanashramA are all post trinity, and in the absence of enough of them, it has also been elaborated for pallavis (I remember that story of MLV having rendered a spectacular gamanashramA).
So there's BMK, who sings it his way for an RTP : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mo_wFtGL8o
And his own composition : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuTuiBWQGRg - observe that BMK tends to sing it with a decidedly hamsAnandi-ish slant with HM-esque phrasing, but then that's him.
Then of course, there's Koteeswara Iyer - with ihamE sukham : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBFmW1Q3F2I (Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam - Auto generated by Youtube btw)
TRS has also sung this one : http://www.sangeethamshare.org/manjunat ... mbay-2001/
There is a composition of Veena Seshanna in it - ubhaya kAvEri ranga - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gDwcknR3hg - well, good to see that rare number and a younger RKS.
But unless gamanashramA takes a leaf out of other sampUrNa rAgAs like kalyANi or shankarAbharanam to milk its own phrases and jeeva swaras, it's going to forever remain a slightly modified PDNS pUrvikalyAni at this rate and there's always the territory of hamsAnandi to consider.
Having mentioned MLV, here's a 50 min long RTP in this concert : http://www.sangeethamshare.org/muralida ... Concert-18
Harikesanallur Muttiah Bhagavatar has also had a go at it (Sri chakra pura vAsini) : http://www.sangeethamshare.org/tvg/UPLO ... is-Part-1/
I really should explore HMB's efforts quite a bit more in my rAgA posts. He has a lot of compositions to his credit across the A-Z of them, not to mention his own creations.
Oh wait, there's Mysore Vasudevacharya (idi neeku nyAyamA?) : http://www.sangeethamshare.org/tvg/UPLO ... Sudharani/ - gamanashramA will probably be the one asking that question to us....
We'll have to stop at Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer's mEla rAgamAlikA at this point, where gamanashramA appears : https://youtu.be/d-SRlBDyzTQ?t=270 - I think I covered literally everything about the raga with this. It was (surprise) more than I was expecting....
And with that, the rAgA has again been on a decline - I do not remember ever having heard it anywhere in recent days. I sincerely hope that someday, the going will get easier for gamanashramA.
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