Article on Neelambari

[Ranganayaki]

Just received this on Whatsapp and discovered that it has not been shared here yet.

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/st ... ies/309605

Mods, Pl feel free to move this to a dedicated page for this raga, if there is one. I could not find one.

[rshankar]

Hi Ranganayaki,

Thank you for posting the piece. It refers to a study done by my friend and senior, Dr. Gitanjali Batmanabhane (currently the director of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, IIRC) in which she compared nIlAmbari to kalyANi to induce sleep. When I first showed Suresh this paper, he said the conclusions were biased by the comparator she used (kalyANi)....

I wonder if the results would have been different if she had used something like kadanakutUhalam for example! And if were designing a study, I would have used the rAgas in random order, and not in a fixed sequence of nIlAmbari followed by kalyANi.

Random musings: How does one 'win' a PhD - it's not a lottery or a race, the last time I checked. People work their behinds off to be awarded one (I am not talking of the many politically motivated honorary doctorates awarded to a whole host of undeserving souls - there are remarkable exceptions, but the majority fall into this bucket IMO)....

[Ranganayaki]

Hi Ranganayaki,

Thank you for posting the piece. It refers to a study done by my friend and senior, Dr. Gitanjali Batmanabhane (currently the director of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, IIRC) in which she compared nIlAmbari to kalyANi to induce sleep. When I first showed Suresh this paper, he said the conclusions were biased by the comparator she used (kalyANi)....

I wonder if the results would have been different if she had used something like kadanakutUhalam for example! And if were designing a study, I would have used the rAgas in random order, and not in a fixed sequence of nIlAmbari followed by kalyANi.

I’m not sure how Kalyani can be said to cause the bias. It is not said to be a particularly soothing or sleepy raga. On the other hand, Yes, the order of the raga nights can certainly tilt the results. Sleeping in the lab on the third night must necessarily be more comfortable than the second night.

Personally, my soporific raga is Todi. It relaxes me, I tend to nod off, and actually fall asleep if I’m not careful, and especially if I’m tired. And for me, the flat notes, the weighty gamakas explain it.

I have a common sense view too, about Neelambari: if musicians actually, truly believed in the soporific effect of Neelambari, they would never sing it in their concerts.