Hamsadhwani

Hamsadhwani is an upāṅga janya¹ of the 29 th mēḷakarta² Dhīraśaṅkarābharaṇa. It is an auḍava³ rāga. The svaras⁴ occurring in this rāga are ṣaḍja, chatuśruti riṣabha, antara gāndhāra, pañchama, kākali niṣāda⁵ .

Its ārōhaṇa ⁶ and avarōhaṇa ⁷ are

In terms of Western notes, if C is taken as the base, then the scale is

This rāga was created by Rāmaswāmi Dikṣitar, who was the father of one among the trinity of Carnatic music, Muttuswāmi Dīkṣitar. It is one of the rāgas that have been borrowed from Carnatic music to Hindustani music.

It is a rakti rāga or a rāga which pleases instantaneously. It offers ample scope for improvisation. It is a tristhāyi rāga, that is, it can be sung in all three octaves. It is an auspicious rāga and is well-suited for performing at the commencement of concerts.

It gives rise to Nāgasvarāvaḷi from pañcama through the process of grahabhēda or modal shift of tonic.

Riṣabha, gāndhāra and niṣāda are rāgachāyā svaras8 . All the svaras are nyāsa svaras9 . G-N are vādi-samvādi svaras (consonant notes).

It can portray rasas10 adbhuta (wonder), 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

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

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.

6. Scale in ascent
7. Scale in descent
8. Notes which most effectively bring out the mood of the rāga
9. The landing notes for elaboration in various stages during improvisation.
10. Emotions or moods.