Mōhana

Mōhana is an upāṅga janya¹ of the 28 th mēḷakarta² Harikāmbhōji. It is an auḍava³ rāga. The svaras⁴ occurring in this rāga are ṣaḍja, chatuśruti riṣabha, antara gāndhāra, pañchama, chatuśruti dhaivata5 .

Its ārōhaṇa ⁶ and avarōhaṇa ⁷ are

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

This is an ancient rāga. It was earlier known as Rēgupti. It corresponds to Raag Bhūp of Hindustani music.

This scale is found in the music of many different countries. Mōhana is a rakti rāga or a rāga which pleases instantaneously. It is a major rāga that offers ample scope for improvisation. There are a number of compositions covering almost all varieties of compositional forms. It is a tristhāyi rāga, that is, it can be sung in all three octaves. It is an auspicious rāga.

It gives rise to four other rāgas through the process of grahabhēda or modal shift of tonic. The four rāgas are Madhyamāvati from riṣabha, Hindōḷa from gāndhāra, Śuddha Sāvēri from pañcama and Śuddha Dhanyāsi from dhaivata. Each of these rāgas gives rise to four rāgas belonging to the same set. Hence, this set of rāgas is called ‘Mōhana chakra’.

Riṣabha, gāndhāra and dhaivata are rāgachāyā svaras⁸ . All the svaras are nyāsa svaras⁹ . R-D, R-P, G-D are vādi-samvādi svaras (consonant notes). It can portray rasas10 like karuṇa (compassion), śṛṅgāra (romantic), adbhuta (wonder), śānta (tranquil), 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.