Kuriñji is an upāṅga janyai of the 29th mēḷakartaii Dhīraśaṅkarābharaṇa. The svarasiii occurring in this rāga are ṣaḍja, chatuśruti riṣabha, antara gāndhāra, śuddha madhyama, pañchama, chatuśruti dhaivata, kākali niṣādaiv. Its ārōhaṇav and avarōhaṇavi are
S Ṇ3 S R2 G3 M1 P D2 – D2 P M1 G3 R2 S Ṇ3 S.
In Western music notation, if C is taken as the base or tonic note, then the scale is
C B C D E F G A – A G F E D C B C.
It is one of the rāgas that originated from folk music. It is a rakti rāga or a rāga which pleases instantaneously.
Riṣabha, niṣāda are rāgachāyā svarasvii. RIṣabha, pañchama are nyāsa svarasviii. Sa-ma, sa-pa, ri-pa, ga-ni are vādi-samvādi svaras (consonant notes).
It can portray rasasix like śṛṅgāra (romantic) very effectively, just as it can convey the feeling of devotion or bhakti bhāva. It is often used in tunes of lullabies as it has a very soothing effect.
Some of the signature phrases of this rāga are
S Ṇ S R G M G, – G, M P M G R, S Ṇ, – S R G M G R, – M G R, S Ṇ, – S P, G, M P G, M R, G M P, P – P R, G, M D P M G – R G, P M G R, S Ṇ – S D P, – P P M G R, – R, G, R – G, M G – M P D P M G R, S Ṇ, – S R G M G R S – S Ṇ R S S Ṇ Ṇ, S R, S,
A few compositions in this rāga are-
Śri vēṇugōpālam
Muttuswāmi Dīkṣitar
Sītā kalyāṇa vaibhōgame
Tyāgarāja
Alivēṇi
Maharāja Swāti Tirunāḷ
Muddugāre yaśōdhā
Tāḷḷapākam Annamāchārya (tuned by Vidwan Nedunuri Krishnamurthy)
Brūhi mukundēti
Sadāśiva Brahmēndra
Bibliography
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
Web Links
TM Krishna presents Raga Kurinji with Vikku Vinayakram (ghatam), Akkarai Subhalakshmi (violin), Praveen Sparsh (mridangam) and Swaminathan Selvaganesh (kanjira).
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