Śaṅkarābharaṇa

Śaṅkarābharaṇa is the 29th mēḷakarta¹ in the sampūrṇa mēḷa system² . It was given the name Dhīraśaṅkarābharaṇa to be made to conform to the kaṭapayādi sūtra³ . It is the fifth raga in the fifth chakra⁴ (Bāṇa chakra). This rāga was known by the same name in the asampūrṇa mēḷa system5 as well. The svaras⁶ occurring in this rāga are ṣaḍja, chatuśruti riṣabha, antara gāndhāra, śuddha madhyama, pañchama, chatuśruti dhaivata, kākali niṣāda⁷ .

Its ārōhaṇa ⁸ and avarōhaṇa ⁹ are

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

This is an ancient rāga that dates back to the period of the grāma-mūrchana-jāti system10 . It corresponds to Bilāval thāṭ 11 of Hindustani music. It is well-distributed and consists of a pair of symmetrical tetrachords separated by a major tone interval.

It corresponds to the paṇṇ 12 Pazham Pañjuram. It is a mūrchanakāraka mēḷa 13. It gives rise to five other rāgas through the process of grahabhēda or modal shift of tonic.

The five rāgas are Kharaharapriya from riṣabha, Tōḍi from gāndhāra, Kalyāṇi from madhyama, Harikāmbhōji from pañcama and Naṭhabhairavi from dhaivata. 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. Gāndhāra, madhyama and pañchama are the rāgachāyā svaras14 . Besides ṣaḍja and pañcama, gāndhāra and madhyama are the nyāsa svaras15 . R-P, R-D. G-D, G-N are pairs of vādi-samvādi16 svaras.

It can portray almost all the rasas17 including karuṇā (compassion), śṛṅgāra (romance), 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.