Gouḷa is a upāṅga janya1 of the 15 th mēḷakarta2 Māyāmāḷavagouḷa. It is an auḍava-vakra ṣāḍava3 rāga. The svaras4 occurring in this rāga in ascent are ṣaḍja, śuddha riṣabha, śuddha madhyama, pañchama, kākali niṣāda. Antara gāndhāra occurs in descent5 .
Its ārōhaṇa 6 and avarōhaṇa 7 are
S R1 M1 P N3 Ṡ – Ṡ N3 P M1 R1 G3 M1 R1 S
In terms of Western notes, if C is taken as the base, then the scale is
C C# F G B C – C B G F C# E F C# C
It is a rakti rāga or a rāga which pleases instantaneously. It is a tristhāyi rāga, that is, it can be sung in all three octaves. It is an ancient rāga. It is one of the ghana pañchaka rāgas.
Riṣabha, madhyama and niṣāda are rāgachāyā svaras8 . Riṣabha and pañchama are nyāsa svaras9 . The riṣabha of gouḷa is lower than the usual śuddha riṣabha and is called ekaśruti riṣabha.
It can portray rasas10 like vīra (valour) very effectively, just as it can convey the feeling of devotion or bhakti bhāva.
Some of the signature phrases of this rāga are:
P M G M R G M R, – Ṇ S R M R S Ṇ P ̣, – R S R, – R M P N, P, – R P M, – R N P, – P N Ṡ Ṙ, Ṡ, – N Ṡ Ṙ Ġ Ṁ Ṙ, – Ṡ Ṙ Ṗ Ṁ Ġ Ṁ Ṙ Ġ Ṁ Ṙ Ṡ N P, – R M R P M N P Ṡ N P, – P Ṙ Ṡ N P M, – R G, M R, – S Ṇ M R R S Ṇ P ̣, – Ṃ, P ̣S Ṇ P ̣, – P ̣R R, – R M R R S S,
A few compositions in this rāga are:
Palumāru nāto (varṇam)
Vīṇa Kuppayyar
Duḍukugala
Tyāgarāja
Śrī mahāgaṇapatiravatu mām
Muttuswāmi Dīkṣitar
Praṇamāmyaham
Mysore Vāsudēvāchārya
Footnotes
1 A derived rāga which has notes only from its own parent rāga.
2 Parent rāga
3 Auḍava- A scale with 5 notes- Pentatonic. Sampūrṇa- A scale that has all 7 notes. Auḍava-sampūrṇa is a scale with 5 notes in ascent and 7 notes in descent.
4 Notes
5 There are 16 varieties of svaras in Carnatic music. They are
Sa (ṣaḍja)
Sa (ṣaḍja)
Ri (riṣabha)
śuddha riṣabha
chatuśruti riṣabha
ṣaṭśruti riṣabha
Ga (gāndhāra)
śuddha gāndhāra
sādhāraṇa gāndhāra
antara gāndhāra
Ma (madhyama)
śuddha madhyama
prati madhyama
Pa (pañchama)
pañchama
Da (dhaivata)
śuddha dhaivata
chatuśruti dhaivata
ṣaṭśruti dhaivata
Ni (niṣāda)
śuddha niṣāda
kaiśiki niṣāda
kākali niṣāda
The above table gives you information on the notes as they are referred to between Sa on the middle octave to the Sa on the upper octave. It needs to be interpreted based on the Raga and its scale formation as given above. In the table given above, there are notes that use the same frequencies but, are spelt differently. For example, Rishaba 2 is equal to Gandhara 1, Dhaivata 2 is equal to Nishad 1. However, because of the ornamentation (Gamakas) most often the notes are not portrayed as it is played out on the Piano. There is a certain distortion in the frequencies making it difficult to identify the actual notes involved in the Scale formation.
Hariharan, M. and Kuppuswamy, Gowri. 2011. Comparative Music- Fundamentals of Western
Music. Nagercoil: CBH Publications
Keshavamurthy, R.R. 1964. Rāgalakṣaṇa mattu Rāgakōśa. Bengaluru: Gāna Viśārada Biḍāram
Kṛṣṇappa Smāraka Saṅgīta Vidyālaya
Rajarao, Mysore L. 2003. Saṅgīta Śāstra Chandrike. Bengaluru: Karnataka Sangeetha Nritya
Academy
Rao, B. Subba. 1980. Raganidhi. Madras: The Music Academy
Sambamoorthy, P. 2018 (reprint of eighth edition published in 1998). South Indian Music
(Volumes 1 to 6). Chennai: The Indian Music Publishing House
Vasantalakshmi, R. 2007. Karnāṭaka Saṅgītaśāstra vāhini. Mysore: Bharathi Prakashana
Abhishek Raghuram performs Raga Gowla
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