Evolution of Raga Names ?

vs_manjunath · Post by **vs_manjunath** » 20 Nov 2007, 06:33

Dear Rasikas- It will be really interesting to educate ourselves about the Evolution of Raga Names In Karnatik System.

It will be nice if raskas can provide links to the about topic as well as share their rich knowledge on the above subject which can lead to an entertaining lively discussion.

vaidyalk77 · Post by **vaidyalk77** » 13 Dec 2007, 07:31

Recently I was watching in aJaya TV program called SaReGaMaPa by Neyveli Santhanagopalan. He mentioned that it is possible from the raga names to derive the Melakarata Sequence number using the first two alphabets of the raga name. For eg Mayamalavagowla.. Ma and Ya are the first two alphabets..In the Devanagari script, we have PaBaBhaaBhaMa.. if we give a value of 1 to Pa then Ma get a value of 5. Similarly Ya gets a value of 1.
so Ma Ya gets 5 1 and if we reverse it , we get 15 which is the Melakarta Sequence Number for Mayamalavagowla. If fact, he mentioned that, the originla raga nama was malavagowla and Maya was added to it name... I thought this was an interesting and fine analysis...I am sure the learned participants of our forum can throw more light...

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 13 Dec 2007, 07:47

vaidyalk refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katapayadi_sankhya which gives a throrough description of deriving the Melakartha number from the first two syllables, ie. katapayAdi sankhya

vs_manjunath · Post by **vs_manjunath** » 13 Dec 2007, 17:03

Thanks for the above posts. The katapayAdi schme for melakarta raga names is well known to rasikas.

Let us take an example- Amrutha Varshini- There is a historical background for the song "AnandAmruthakarshini amruthavarshini" in amrutha varshini. Ahiri has it's own legend. shanmukhapriya is a melakarta raga following the katapayAdi scheme. We do have songs on Lord Shanmukha set in this raga( valli nAyakane). This raga is also called chAmara. I generally wanted rasikas to share their knowledge about the evolution of raga names, need not be only mEla raga names even the janya raga names will be interesting to discuss.

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 13 Dec 2007, 21:21

Wish to state here that the katapaya-Adi scheme is not used just in music, it came to be used in music also but was not invented therefor.

More on the same:

http://srath.com/numerology/katapayadi.htm
http://hitxp.wordpress.com/2007/05/28/k ... algorithm/
http://members.tripod.com/~RKSanka/music/katapaya.html
http://www.namboothiri.com/articles/katapayaadi.htm

vs_manjunath · Post by **vs_manjunath** » 22 Dec 2007, 12:03

srkris- Thanks for these links and more info. reg Katapaya- Adi scheme which has indicated that this scheme has been used elsewhere also and it was not invented for Carnatic Music.

babaji · Post by **babaji** » 31 Dec 2007, 10:28

the earliest scheme was i believe north indian in nature before katapayadi came it was called rag-raagini-putra.but however even that was not formalised like how venkatamakhi formalised his melakarta ragas which happens to be the first written document on melakarta raaga scheme in the world.