A study of the laksanas of ragas in the sangraha chudamani

20 Pages·2001·4.1 MB·English

by  Premalatha, V.

A Study of the
Lak~al}as of Ragas in the Satigrahaclllu!iimalJi*
v.PREMALATHA
I....,..RODUCTIOS
TheSangrahachudomani(SC)ofGovinda,aSanskritworkwritteninthepost-Vcnkatamakhi
period', deals mainly with the melakartii-janya system ofclassificationofragas. For (he
firsttime in the Sanskrit textualtraditionofSouthIndianmusic,wecome acrossthearuha
andavarbha beingmentionedaslaksanasofaraga.Suchascriptionoflaksanascametobe
an important factor in post-Siiriimrta works. Apart from the SC. a few other published
worksarc also foundto incorporate thisfeature. They are:
(I) the Ragalaksana (RL) in Sanskrit.ofunknown authorship;
(2) the Sangitaratniikara in Kannada.ofunknown authorship;
(3)theSangitasiirasangrahamuofTiruvenkatakavi,inTelugu:and
(4) theMohiibharatachkdomoniinTamil.ofunknown authorship.
Among these four works. the style ofdescription in the RLclosely followsthat ofthe
SC, whereas the Sangitasiirasangrahamu and Mahabharatacbiidomani have a slightly
differentformat",TheSanguaromakoragivesonlythescalesofthejanyo-ragasand isnot
formed of verses. unlike the SC and RL. A paper manuscript (hereafter, MS) titled
Svaramelakaldnidhi' (numbered R15752intheSanskritsectionoftheGovernmentOriental
ManuscriptsLibrary.Madras)containsthesamekind ofdescriptionofjanya-ragasasseen
inthe SC and RL.
Many ragas handled by the Trimiirti of Music. namely. Syama Sastri, Tyagariija and
Mutrusvflmi Dlksita (and other composers of the nineteenth century) are noticed in the
above mentioned works.Thus they form an importanttextualsource for ragas which are
knowntohaveexistedformore than twohundredyears andarestillinvoguetoday.Inthis
context, the study ofragalaksanas in these works also helps usto observe thechangesthat
have takenplaceinthe structureofthe ragas.Theaimofthispaperistoexaminesomeof
thecharacteristicsofthe ragasfound intheSC bycomparingthemwiththeRLandtheMS.
which follow the samestyleofpresentation.
BRIEFCOllrtTE.~TSOFTHEWORKS
Sangrahachlidamani
TheSCwa~edit~dbyPanditS.SubrahmanyaSastriand publishedbytheAdyarLibrary
andResearchCentre,Chennai,in 1938fromasinglepalm-leafmanuscriptinitspossession.
The edition has three chapters. The first chapter gives an account of the origin and
*Anearlier draft orthis paper was presented at the 40th sessionor the AUIndiaOriental Conference. held
inChennai inMay2000.
Sangu / Nol8k Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 3-4. 2001
.0 v.PREMALATHA
establishmentof niityaand then enumerates the four vrttls, rasaand its constituents, the
fourkindsofabhinaya,the fourtypesof viidyas,theconstructionofthe theatre fornatya,
andthefirstperformance byBharataand hisdisciples.Then itlistsanumberofwriterson
dramaandmusic.Thesecondchapterspeaksofthedefinitionofsangitaand itsgreatness,
andstatesafewfundamentalconceptslikenada,sthiina,irutiandsvara.Thethirdchapter
speaksofthevarietiesofsrutisandtheiuddha-viknatprakrti-vikrti)svaras;thepermutation
or the prastiiras of these svaras: the names of the 72 rnelakartas and their laksanas; the
namesof thejanya-ragas of each mela: and finally the laksanasof thejanya-ragas.Then
follow theIoksana-gitasfor the72 melakartas and theirjanyas.
Riigalaksana
Thisisa small work containing the names of the 72 rnelakarta-ragas followed by the
Iaksanasofthejanya-ragas.From theintroduction to the work. wecome to know that the
presenteditionisbasedon a(single) manuscriptinthepossessionofapersoninTanjavur.
The editor feels that there would probably have been a portionof the work dealing with
svaras, which is missing. The edition seems to have many gaps in between. which are
apparent from the cross signs (x x x) marked in between the reproduced text. At many
places, the workconsists of variant readings mentioned under the name "Andhra".'This
includes
(I) differentversionsofthe arohasand avarohasfor alreadygiven ragas(Type I);and
(2) afew ragaswith their arohas andavarfihas alone,of whichsomeare not presentin
theoriginaltext (Type II).
Manuscript fMS)
Thecontentsofthe MS can be divided intothreeparts:
(I) S10kaslistingthe names ofthe 72melakartas(Kanakangl, Ramangj. etc.);
(2) sl6kasgivingthenamesofthejanya-ragasofeachmetaalongwiththeserial number
ofthemela-thetotal number ofjanya-ragasundereachmelaisalso indicated;
(3) slokasdescribingthe Iaksanasofthejanya-ragas.
There are Some lacunae in the MS, e.g., the Iaksanas ofsome of the ragas listed are
missing.
Comingtothestudyofragalaksanasintheabovethreeworks,wefind thatalora)of294
janya-ragasaredescribedinthe SC;286ragasinthe RL;and 232ragas in the MS_A few
ragas.areseentooccurexclusivelyineachoftheseworks.Thuswehave 17ragasoccurring
o~ly In the se,29 ragas occurring only in the RL, and 20 ragas occurring only in the
'Andhra' versionoftheRL. (Fora listoftheseragas.seeAnnexure I.)
Now, weshallsee themanner inwhichthe laksanasofthe ragas have beendescribed.
DESCRIPTIO:,,;OFTHEL\KS!\:~ii'S0..'RAGAS
The pattern ofdescription of ragalaksanas in the above works isidentical. Two verses
are normallydevoted foreachjanya-raga,ofwhichthefirstverse presentsthe name ofthe
LAK~At:JAS OF RAGAS INTHE SANGRAHACHUQAMA/yl 41
raga,thename ofthemela(from whichitisderived), andgivesinformationaboutitsnviisa
,amsa-, and graha-svaras, In the first halfofthesecond verse,thear6haandavar6ha are
described interms oftheoccurrenceofnotes(sampumaorvarjyaandkramaorvakrav,and
in the second half the actual ar6ha and avar6ha of the raga are given using the svara
syllables sa, ri,ga, etc.
While describing the aroha and avar6ha, terms like auduvam (SC) or audavam (RL),
siulavam. sampurna-misrchhana.svarasaptaka,madhyama-raga,madhyama-saptaka,etc.,
arenoted. Ofthem,
(1) the term 'auduvam' or 'audavam' occurs when araga totallyomits twonotes,i.e.,
both in the ar6ha and avaroha, and if the svaras in bothar6ha and avar6ha are in
order, i.e., ifthey are in krarna;
(2) the term 'sadavarn' occurs whenaraga totallyomitsonenote,bothinthearohaand
avar6ha, and if thescale isinkrama;
(3) the term 'sampnma-murchhana' or 'svarasaptaka' occurs when a raga has all the
seven notes in krama;
(4) the term 'madhyarna-raga' or 'rnadhyama-saptaka' occurs ina few ragas whose
melodic movement in the ascending direction is limited to nisiida or dhaivata
(nisadantya, dhaivatiintya ragas like Punnagavarali, Kurifiji.etc.).
Generally, the ar6ha starts with the madhya-sthiiyisadja andends with thetiira-sthiivi
sadja.coveringthewholeregister. Butinsomecases,thishaschangedslightly.Forexample,
thearohaofMafijariragainthe RLcommenceswithmadhya-sthiiyirsobba(rigapadhani
sar-risanidhapa gari);thetiira-sthayirsabha isincludedintheavar6haofKamiisainthe
SCand the "Andhra"reading of the RL (sarnagamapadha nisa-risanidhapamaga
sa).
From thedescriptionfound inthese works, thearoha andavar6haofthejanya-ragas are
either vakra or varjya. In the case of vakra aroha-avaroha. thesvaras are not arranged in
order but are in a zigzag pattern.
Somejanya-ragasare also characterizedbyakrama-sampkmaarohaandavar6ha.This
featureisnormallyassociatedwithonlythemelakarta-ragas'.However,noneoftheseworks
mention krama-sarnpumaar6ha and avaroha as thedefining characteristic ofamelakartii
raga. In some cases, the krarna-sarnpuma aroha-avaroha is also assigned to ajanya-raga
and sometimes to more than onejanya-ragaclassified under thesame mela.Forinstance,
threeragas, namely, Saurastra,Piirvi,andParaju (alljanyasofthe15thmela),areassigned
thearohaand avar6hasa riga rnapa dha ni sa-sanidhapa rnaga risa.Sinceadistinct
ar6ha-avar6haseems tobestowanidentity totheragasclassified underamela,thequestion
is: how are these janya-ragas different from each other and also from the melakartii-raga
MayamaJavagaula?
One way in whichthis apparentlackofdistinction between ragascouldbeexplained is
tosuggest thatthesejanya-ragas,over andaboveakrama-arohaandkrama-avar6ha, hadin
addition an anyasvara (an auxiliary or accidental orforeign note, inother words, a svara
thatdoes not belongto theparentmela) or two, butnotincorporated inth.earoha-avar6~a.
However, itisnotcertainifsuchasuggestion wouldbevalid.Inmoderntimes,aragaWI~
ananyasvarais referredtoasabhasimga-raga": Further,therearesomebh~ailga-ragas10
42 V. PRE.\IALATHA
which the anyasvaru does not figure in the aroha-avaroha and some others in which the
anyasvara does figure in the aroha-avaroha. However. this term ('bha~atiga-raga') is not
found inanyoftheworks understudy.Itistobepointed out thatsomeragaslikeSaurastra
are bh:i?anga-ragas thatdo not incorporate the anyasvara in the aroha-avaroha. But in the
absenceofanyreferencetoanyasvara.itbecomesdifficulttoexplainthedifferencebetween
ragas that have identical ar6ha-avar6hasmentionedin these works.
Besides, these works, while describing thecharacteristics ofjanya-ragas, mention just
the svarasinar6haand avaroha,butdo not specify their variety. Inthat case,it has to be
inferred thai the anyasvara is probably not included in the ar6ha and avaroha, and that it
occurred only in some melodic phrases. For example,letusconsiderthe raga Saurastra.It
isclassified under the 15thmela with akrarna-sampurnaaroha and avaroha inthe SC,RL
aroha
and MS.SubbarfimaDlksitaintheSangitasampradayapradariini'noo gives the and
avarohaofSaurastraassarigomapadha nisa-sanidhapa rnagorisaandhasclassified
itas a bha~ga-raga, largely in the modem sense ofthe term, Characteristic phrases are
then given to illustrate the usage ofthe two varieties of dhaivata and nisada, Thiskind of
description ismissing in theSCand other works.Hence the distinguishing characteristics
of these ragas, which have identical ac6has and avarohas, should besought in melodic
detailsand not inthe laksanaspresented inthe two verses,
Inthe SC and MS,afew svarasof the arobaand avaroha are oftenrepeated more than
once.Forexample, Bhupalaisgiven assarigopapodhadha sa,Sometimesthescaledoes
not end with the madhya-sthayi sadja but includes one or two notes in the lower.register
also.For example, thescaleofDhanyasiisgiven asso ni dhapa rna ga risani sa.
Inthe~fS.where manyragasaredescribedunderameta.inthecaseofsomeoftheragas
describedlater, thefirstline isincomplete.That is,thenameofthe melais mentionedinan
abbreviated fonn like "Khara'' for Kharaharapriya, "Nara" for Narabhairavi, and "Dwa"
for Dhirasankarabharanam,Forinstance,whiledescribing the raga Kannadagaula, the MS
reads,"Kharall /ajja/a,!,Kannadagauloi",This couldbea scribal peculiarity,
Some ragasare noticedtwice inthe RL under differentmelas, as for instance
Devakriyii 20.49
Ghantarava 8. 20
MaJavi 21.28
Naraya~i 28.29
Paficbarna 22,48
Paraja 15.28
Pdrnaparicharna 15,20
Ravichandrika 20.28
~indhu 17,29
Suddhadhanyasi 20, 22
Dipaka 10.51
Jaganmdhini 15,38
On further study,itwasobservedthat
(i) the iirohaor/and avaroha is/are given only at Oneplace for some ofthe ragas. For
example,there is noarobaand avaroha forGhantarava, underthe 8th mela,MaJavi
LAK~A~AS OFRAGASIN THESANGRAHACH[;QAMA/yl 43
underthe 21st mela, Paraja underthe 28th rnela,etc.
(ii) theraga Dipakaonpage8(ofRL)should probably readDipara underthe 10thrnela
(as seen InSC).
(iii)someragasare prescribeddifferentarohas andavar6has, thus suggesting different
ragaswiththesamename,e.g.,
Devakriya: sariga rnadhanisa-sanidharna garisa (20)
sa rirnapa dhasa-sanidhaparnagarigasa (49)
Pumapanchama: sariga rnadhanisa-sadhaparnagarisa (15)
sa riga rnapa dhanisa-sanidhaparnarlsa (20)
(iv) the raga Jaganmohini, found on page 51(of RL) under the38th mela, seems tobe
equivalenttoJaganmohanaoftheSCunderthesamernela.
VARIATIONSWITfiNTHETHREE\lURKS
Althoughthethree works aremodelledalike,there are someremarkable differences
amongthem. Theycanbestudiedunderthefollowingheadings:
(I) changesinthenamesof melakartas:
(2) changesinthenamesofragas;
(3) changesinassigningaragaunderamelakarta;
(4) changesinthegraha. amsaandnyasasvaras;
(5) changesinthearohaandavar6haofaraga.
I.Changes intheNames ofMelakartas
Thenamesofsomeofthemelakartasdifferasfollows:
(7) Scnavati RL
Senapati SC,MS
(14) Bakulabharanam RL
Vakulabharanarn SC,MS
(20) Natabhairavi RL
Narabhairavi SC,MS
(52) Rarnapriya SC,RL
Ramakriya MS
(53) Gamanasrarna SC,RL
Garnanasriya MS
(55) Syarnalang! RL
Samalangi' SC,MS
(58) Hemavati RL
Haimavati SC,MS
(62) Rsabhapriya RL
Risabhapriya SC,MS .
Among the above, except for Natabhairavi, Baku1abhar~aru:and Rsabhapriya, all the
othersconformtothe'katopayadisankhyil'.IntheSC,slightvananons10thenamesofthe
V. PRE~IALATHA
rnelakartds are seeninthe differentcontexts inwhichthey occur. Inrespect of Senavati.
SyiimalangiandHernavati,althoughthenamesintheSCdifferfrom thoseintheRL (while
describing the laksanas of thejanya-ragas), in the context of listing the names of the 72
melakartas",thenamescoincidewiththeRL.
2.ChangesintheNamesofRagas
Thenamesofafewragasreaddifferentlyinthethreeworks:forinstance.'Marudhanyasi'
and 'Maruvadhanyaai': 'Kamasu'. 'Khamacha' and 'Karnasa': 'Siihana' and 'Sahanii';
'Bega<ja' and 'Bihagada'; 'Pddi' and 'Pahadi',etc.The raga Bh6gi occurs in the SCand
~1Swiththearohaandavarohasa garnapo dhanidha sa-sanidhaparnagasa underthe
7th mela.TheRLmentions araga. Bhogachinramani, with the same aroha andavaroha
underthesamemeta.Probably,botharedifferentnamesofthesameraga.
3.Differences inAssigningaRaga to aParticularAfeta
Someragasaredescribedunderdifferentmelas,Followingisalistofsuchragasineach
ofthe works, withtheirmelanumbers:
Raga RL SC MS
Suddhasaveri 28 29 29
~ri 8 8 W
Dhanyasi 8 8 20
Athana 28 29
Devamanohari 25 22
Gbamarava 8,20 2 20
Purvagaula 15 29
~iira~ ~ D 28
Desiili;i 29 28
Jayantasrt 28 20 20
Am0!1gtheaboveragas.somearetreatedtodayasbhasanga-ragas,e.g..Niliimbari,AthaQa,
andAhiri,This may be thereason for thedifference inassigning melas for theragas.
Though A\hanaisdescribed under the 28th mela in the RL,theAndhra versionputs it
underthe29(hmela,Adifferentar6haandavaroha ismentionedfortheragaJayantasriin
theRLand SC,andtheMS followstheSc.(RL:sarigarnapadhanipadhasa-sanidha
pamarisa;SCand MS:sagamadhanisa-sa nidhamapamago sa).
4.ChangesintheGraha-,A'!'sa·,andNyiisa-svaras
Thegraha-,~arp.sa-,andnyasa-svarasofsomeragasdifferinthethreeworksunderstudy.
Forexample,SuddhadeSi;painSCand ri in RL;Bangala:ga inSCand dha inMS.(This
aspecthas beendiscussedin detaillater in thispaper.)
5.ChangesintheArohasandAvarohasof Ragas
Theiir6hasandavarohasdifferformanyragasinthe three works.Adetailed analysisof
thearohaandavarohaofeachoftheragashasnotbeenattemptedhere.However,froma
cursorystudy,thefollOWingobservationsaremade:
LAK~A!'IAS OF RAGAS INTHES4NGRAHACHUPAMA/i1 4S
(a) The notepaiichamaisomitted in Bhairaviinthear6ha(exceptinRL)andavaroha
in all the three works.But today. pafichama is nottreated as anomitted noteor a
weaknote.In Viriboni,intheatatiila J.·QrlJo.onecan noticetheoccurrenceofsome
panchama varjya phrases likeninidha-dhani,dim dha ma- ninidhadha. nidha
dhama,ere,
(b) The RL treats Sankarabharana as ajanya-raga (different from the melakarta-raga
Dhirasankarabharana),omitting nisadaintheavar6ha,whichisarahjaku-pruyisga
ofthisraga.
(c) Insomecases.thereisanadditionalvakra-prayogaincludedinthear6haoravar6ha
or both, which probably occurs often in the ragaor enhances the svan1pa of the
raga, e.g.,
Gaula:
sarimQpanisa-saniparnarigornari sa RL
sa rigo mo ri mapanisa-saniparnagoma risa SC
Surati:
sanidhaparnarisa RL
sanidhaparnago ri sa SC.MS
sa nidhaparnagoparnarisa RL-A.ndhra
Sahana:
sariga rnadharnadhanisa-sanidhaparnaga ri sa RL
sa rigornaparnadhanisa-sanidhapornagamarisa SC
sarigarnaparnadhanisa-sanidhaparnagarnarigorisa MS
Purnachandrika:
sarigo rnapadhaposa-sa nipomarigorna risa RL
sarigornapadha pasa-sa11;padhapo rnagornari SC
Kedaragaula:
sarirnapanisa-sanidhapamagorisa RL.SC;
sa ri1Mpantsa-sanidhapamagoriga risa MS
(d) Insomecases,thedifferenceliesinphraseslikesarnagornaIsago rna,e.g.•
Hindolarn:
RL
so goma dhanisa-sanidharnagosa
SC.MS
somagornadhanisa-sanidha rnago sa
(e) Thearohas and avarohas ofsome ofthe ragas arequitedifferent fromthe present
day. For example. Raiijani is mentioned with a pancharna, Bhairavi without a
panchama,Gambhlranataas asampiirna scale.etc.
SOl\1ESIGNIFICANT ASPECTS
The SC. RL. andMS makeasignificant contributiontotheSanskrittextualtradition of
SouthIndianmusic,sincetheyalonespeakofmanyragaswhichbecamepopularInthepast
V. PREMALATIlA
three centuries and remain in vogue today. Some significant aspects of these works are
discussed below.
1. stadhvama-ragas
Some ragas are defined as madhyarna-ragas in the SC and RL.Whenone looksat the
5r6hasand avarohasoftheseragas.itisobserved thattheupperlimit/range isrestrictedto
ni~5daordhaivata,Therefore theseragas.whichare mentioned asmadhyama-ragas,could
be ragas whichweresunginthe madhyama iruti.Inotherwords,madhyama wastaken as
the tonic note.The limited range of some of these ragas is explicit from the arohas and
avarohas,e.g.,Punnagavarali:ntsa rigo rnapodhani-nidha pa rna go risa ni.
Describing certain ragas as "madhya[ma] raga" is not noticed in any earlier treatise,
thoughitisobservedintheSangitasampraddyapradariini(SSP)""alaterwork.Thefollowing
are the len rnadhyama-ragas specifiedby the SC,etc.:
Punnagavar5Jika:nisarigornapa dhani-nidhapama gorisani (8)
PUl1)apafichama:so. rigo.rnapadha-dhaparnago.riso.rnago.riso. (15)
Nagagandh5.ri:so.rigo.rnapadha ni-nidhaPomarnagoriso. (20)
Julavu:po.niso.rigo.ma-parnago.riso.nipaniso. (29)
Kurafiji:so.niniso. rigo.rnapa-dhapo. rnago. riso. niso. SC,MS,
so. rigo.rnapo.dhani-ntdhapa rnago. ri so.ni RL(29)
Navaroja:padhaniso. rigo. rnapa-parnago. riso. (29)
K6kilapaiichama: padhaniso. rigo. ri-sanidhapago. ri so. riso. (39)
Gandharva:rnapo.dhaniso. ri-ga riso. niso. (42)
Abhiru:niso.go. rigo.rnapa dhani-nidhapa rnago. riso.niso. RL
so. riniso.dhapo. rna-po.go.so.dhapago.so. MS (47)
2.Graha-svarasofRagas
Although the term graha today is taken to denote the svara of a raga on which a
compositioncommences,fromtheexplanationthattheSSPgives,thetermseemstodenote
thesvara whichistaken asthetonic orcommencing noteofthe scaleoftheraga. Usually,
sadjaismentionedasthegraha-svara formany ragas,Butforsome ragas, anoteotherthan
~4ja is mentioned as the graha.This phenomenon is noticed in some Sanskrit works".
SubbararnadiksitaintheSSPexplainsthat"if,foraraga,asvaraotherthansadjaisspecified
asgraha, then,irrespectiveofwhatthatsvara is.ithastobe placed onthepositionofso.and
sung?".
Thefollowingragasarespecifiedwithagraha-svaraotherthansadjaintheSC,RLand
MS:
S.No. Raga Meta
Graha-svara Source
1. Rasiili 4 ri SC, RL,MS
2. Bh6gi 7 ri SC,MS
3. Bhogachintamani 7 ri RL
4. Vasamabhairavl 14 dha SC,RL,MS
5. Gaula 15 ni SC
LAK~A~AS OFRAGASINTHESANGRAIIACHUpAMAIfJ 47
6. Gujjari 15 ga SC.MS
7. Revagupti 15 dba RL
8. sa-veri 15 rna SC
9. Bhujangiai 16 pa MS
10. KalavatI 16 ri SC.MS
I\. Amrtavahini 20 ni RL
12. A.nandabhairavi 20 dha RL.MS
13. Bhairavi 20 db. SC.MS
14. Devakriya 20 dha MS
15. Hindolavasanta 20 dha SC. RL,MS
16. Margahindcla 20 ri MS
17. NayakI 20 ni SC
18. Ravichandrika 20 dh. RL
19. Ritigaula 20 ni SC.RL,MS
20. Suddhadesi 20 pa SC
ri RL
2\. Kalanidhi 22 dh. SC.MS
22. Kannadagaula 22 ni SC.MS
23. Madhyamavati 22 rna SC
24. Maiijari 22 dba SC
25. Manohari 22 ni MS
26. Maruvadhanyasf 22 ri MS
27. Pafichama 22 ri MS
28. Salangabhairavi 22 dha MS
29. Useni 22 ri SC
30. Velavali 22 dba SC.RL.MS
3\. Kesari 25 pa ~lS
RL
32. A!h~a 28 dha
33. Bangala 28 ga SC
dba MS
34. Isamanohan 28 ri SC
35. Kedaragaula 28 ni SC.MS
36. Naray~.gaula 28 ni SC.RL,MS
37. Sahana 28 ni SC
38. SliralI 28 ni SC.RL
39. Yadukulakfunbhoji 28 dha SC
RL
40. ArabhI 29 ri RL
4\. Navarcja 29 dba
42. Bhogasaveri 37 pa SC.MS
RL,MS
43. Bhlipalapaiichama 39 ga
42 pa SC
44. Gandharva
49 pa SC.RL
45. Bhinnaherali
69 ni SC.RL
46. Dhautapaiichama
48 v.PREMALATHA
Inthe above list, among the 46 ragas, there seems to be no reference made to 17ragas
(Rasiili, Bh6gi, Bhogachintamani, Kalilvati, Bhujangini. Amrtavahini, Ravichandrika,
Kulanidhi, Maiijari, Manahan, Maruvadhanyasi. Kesari, Bhogasaveri.Bhupalapafichama.
Gandharva. Bhinnaherilli, and Dhautapafichama) in any other published Sanskrit work.
The Telugu work Sangitasarasangranamu describes many ofthese ragas, but the graha
svaras seem tobe different. In this regard, the se,RL, and MS become important textual
evidences. It is also to be noted that some of these ragas appear to have been handled
exclusivelyby Tyagaraja. e.g., Rasali, Amrtavahini, etc.
Referencestotheremaining29ragas areavailableinthe post-Ratniikaratreatises;many
ofthe ragas are mentionedin the anubandha to the Chaturdandiprakiiiikii. A list ofthese
ragas withtheirgraha-svaras and varjya-svaras, from the SC, RL, MS, and otheravailable
published Sanskrit sources, is appended to this paper (Annexure 2). The following
observations are made on analysis ofthe graha-svaras mentionedin various works:
(a) The graha-svaras ofsome ragas such as Ritigaula, Kedaragaula.Narayanagaula,
Velilvall.Madhyamavati,Bhairavi,KannadagaulaandGaulaarenotalteredwhen
comparedwith earliersources. Instead,in afew cases,sadjais mentionedas the
graha-svara inthe present works (SC, etc.).
(b) For some ragas, for which a note other than sadja is the graha in the earlier
sources, adifferentnote (otherthan sadja) is specified,
e.g., Gurjari(ga), Saverl(ma), Revagupti (dha), etc.
(c) For some ragas, the earliersources mention sadjaas the graha-svara, whereas a
differentnote is specified as the graha-svarain these works,
e.g., Vasantabhairavi, Yadukulakamboji, A..nandabhairavi, Hindolavasanta
(dha); Suruti,Sahana,Nayakr(ni); and Arabhi(ri).
(d) In some cases, a varjya-svara (absent either in aroha or avaroha, or both) has
been mentionedas its graha-, amsa- and nyasa-svara,.
e.g., Bhogi: ri (ri varjya in SC and MS)
Bhiipalapafichama: ga(ga varjyain MS and RL)
AnandabhairavI: dha(ri,dha varjyain arohain RL, MS)
Maruvadhanyasi: ri(ri,ni varjyain arohain MS)
Bangala: dha(dha,ni varjyain arohain MS).
This aspectisalso notedin the earliertexts. Someworksseemtoretainthegraha-svara
from the earliertexts, but mentionthe varjya-svaras accordingto the thencurrentpractice.
Insuch cases,there arepossibilitiesofavarjya-svarabeingagraha-svara,e.g., rnainBauli,
mentioned as such in the Sangitasudha, the Chaturdandiprakdsikii (CPD) and the
Sangitasiiriimrta,
3. "Andhra" VersioninRL
Asstatedearlier, the RLgives certainreadingsunderthename"Andhra",TheseAndhra
readings contain the arohas and avarohas ofthe ragas alone. Thereason behindplacingor
insertingcertainragas(whicharemissingintheoriginalRL)belowaparticularraga(although
under the relevant mela in most of them) is not clear. For example, Bindurnalini and
Malayamarutamare placedjustafterBhujangini under Chakravaka(16).