Bhasanga ragas

[narayan]

Perhaps a very basic query. Most of the common bhasanga ragas use the higher variant of the swara in the arohanam and the lower one on the way back.

Examples
Risabham - Asaveri, Punnagavarali
Gandharam - Nattai, Anandabhairavi
Madhyamam - Hamir Kalyani, Behag
Dhaivatam - Bhairavi, Mukhari, Huseni
Nishadam - Devagandhari, Sourashtram, Brindavana saranga, Kapi, even Athana

A limited exception could be kambhoji, but that does not use any nishadham in the arohanam at all, so not sure that counts as an exception.

Is there a theory to support this?

[hariniraghavan]

Dear Narayan, there seems to be some confusion within you regarding Bhashanga ragas. First of all the bhashanga swaras need not necessarily feature i n the arohana and avarohana except for Hamirkalyani wherein the bhashanga swara sudda madyama is incorporated in the arohana-avarohana itself. In asaveri chatusruti dhaivata is the anya swara (bhashanga) which comes in avarohana and not in arohana. In anadabhairavi gandhara is not the bhahanga swara,but it is c.dhaivata which does not feature in the scale. It appears only in certain sancharas like sndp or pdnd and so on.
Perhaps you can check it up some where or if you want some more clarity regarding bhashanga ragas I can write to you.
Harini.

[hariniraghavan]

More over, the anya swaras feature only rarely in a composition or in the alapana. Only the swaras given in the scale are used throughout a composition depending on the propriety). Perhaps that is one reason why the bhashanga swara is not included in the scale. Using of both the madyamas gives this raga it's beauty and hence the importance to sudda madyama. Hope I am right. Comments from learned members of the forum is welcome.
Harini.

[narayan]

Maybe I've misused the term Bhasanga. I'll try to educate myself. Anyhow, my layman's question is really this.

In ragas where, say both gandharams are used in different phrases (not vivadi phrases), is there an example where the lower note is used in ascending sequences and the higher one in descending sequences? In all the examples I've quoted, in the relevant ones, it is higher note while going up, lower while coming down. Is there an exception to this?

Both notes being used either while ascending or descending is OK.

[hariniraghavan]

Dear N arayan, I will get back to you in a while regarding this.
Harini.

[vasanthakokilam]

One of my hobbies is to play around with melodies and combining the ones I personally like and see what happens. One of them falls into the category that you are talking about here. I thought I will share that, for whatever it is worth.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/e1ffbd00-28ab ... anaranjani

Conception, playing and recording all done in one shot, so pardon the imperfections. It is quite raw.

[hariniraghavan]

It is a derivative of which mela?
Harini.

[mankuthimma]

VK You made me weep .
Why didnt you choose a happier set of ragas .With the weekend promising to be a beautiful one.

The closest we can get to a Mali, in our group I Guess

[narayan]

One of my hobbies is to play around with melodies and combining the ones I personally like and see what happens. One of them falls into the category that you are talking about here. I thought I will share that, for whatever it is worth.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/e1ffbd00-28ab ... anaranjani

Guess it IS what I'm talking about. The upper half of the octave was not explored much, but the point was made in the lower half of the octave. If this is the only example that people have, then I've discovered a very well kept secret, or it's just so obvious that no one is pointing it out! Anyway, thanks.

[vasanthakokilam]

Thanks all for giving it a listen. MT, yes it has the sad vibe, another person says it induces deep sleep
I switched to 1.5 kattai on a 5 kattai flute by playing sa in the low pa position.
This enables me to play the ma-ga gamakam which produces that vibe. I like the sound of it and I indulge in it.

Harini, thx..Right, hard to assign a mela to it, we may need to resort to Prof. Sambamurthy's system ( something like 72x72 ).

Narayan, this is something I did, so not sure of kosherness. Your observation on the ragas about the higher note in ascent and lower note in descent is very interesting. My playing around is mainly to see if there is an emergence of some new aesthetics, and it just so happened that it matched what you are looking for.

[ragam-talam]

VK - for my understanding, were you combining Sahana with another raga, Sivaranjani perhaps?

[vasanthakokilam]

r-t, yes.

[vasanthakokilam]

The sahAna aesthetic in the post above was a derivative of a different aesthetic idea I had. A week back I was thinking about all the fun HM folks have with variations on kAnaDa. DayAvathi is a raga that is very dear to me and it has an inexplicable effect on me. As a result it suffers in my hands.....This is the aesthetic that grew out of trying variations on that raga with a tinge of kAnaDa aesthetic but using the higher ga.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/d4ee3bf9-2cea ... nDayavathi

[hariniraghavan]

Guess it IS what I'm talking about. The upper half of the octave was not explored much, but the point was made in the lower half of the octave. If this is the only example that people have, then I've discovered a very well kept secret, or it's just so obvious that no one is pointing it out! Anyway, thanks.

Narayan, a Bhashanga raga is a janya raga, which takes anya swaras ( 1 or more in each) other than those in its parent raga, inorder to enhance the beauty of that particular raga. The anya swara may or maynot feature in the scale. Regarding your doubt that the higher note (R,G,orD) in the arohana and the lower in the avarohana incase 2R,Gor Ds appear in the same scale, your observation is correct. I studied a number of bhashanga ragas before replying to your query.
In bhairavi C.Dhaivata is a bhashanga swara which comes in arohana and the S.dhaivata original swara in the avarohana. Whenever a swara is followed by the next swara which is higher than the present one, in case of presence of 2 R,G,D, etc., the earlier swara has to be one with higher value. i.e., in bhairavi scale in arohana D is followed by N. Therefore, it has to be C.D, followed by N, because the scale moving up. In the return, as the scale is moving down, N is followed by S.D indicating the descent. Suppose the scale wasDPD N and if both Ds were to be present in the arohana the 1st D wuold be Sudda and the 2nd chaturasra, not because of the order of their presence but because of the swara that follows D(DP indicates descent and DN the ascent).
In mukhari S.D is the anya swara which is featyred in avarohana following the same principle that the next swara is one smaller to SD. In sancharas like SNDP, MPDP, PNDP sudda dhaivata as anya swara appears. See that in all these cases dhaivata is in descent. Similar is the case with huseni where once again SD is anya, in avarohana.
In case of saaranga, SRGMPDNS - SNDPMRGMRS sudda madyama is anya and it is the 2nd M, which appears inGMRS is sudda madyama.

These are some of the ragas where anya swara is incorporated in the scale itself. In ragas like Neelambari, Kambodhi, Bilahari, etc., anya swara can be seen only in prayogas (usages) alone.

I hope I have made myself clear. Sorry fpr the delay in posting it.
Harini.

[vasanthakokilam]

Harini, good analysis. Thanks for that info.