Abhēri

Abhēri is an upāṅga janya¹ of the 22nd mēḷakarta² Kharaharapriya.

It is an auḍava-sampūrṇa³ rāga. The svaras⁴ present in this rāga are ṣaḍja, sādhāraṇa gāndhāra, śuddha madhyama, pañchama, kaiśiki niṣāda. Chatuśruti dhaivata and chatuśruti riṣabha occur in descent⁵.

Its ārōhaṇa⁶ and avarōhaṇa⁷ are:

In Western notation, if C is the base or tonic note, then the scale formation is:

Abhēri is a rakti rāga or a rāga which pleases instantaneously. Gāndhāra and madhyama are rāgachāyā svaras⁸. Madhyama and niṣāda are nyāsa svaras⁹. Ga -Ni are vādi-samvādi svaras (consonant notes). It can portray rasas¹⁰ like karuṇa (compassion) 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 scalewith 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.