Śuddha Dhanyāsi

Śuddha Dhanyāsi is an upāṅga janya1 of the 22 nd mēḷakarta2 Kharaharapriya. It is an auḍava3 rāga. The svaras4 occurring in this rāga are ṣaḍja, sādhāraṇa gāndhāra, śuddha madhyama, pañchama, kaiśiki niṣāda5 .

Its ārōhaṇa 6 and avarōhaṇa 7 are

S G2 M1 P N2 Ṡ – Ṡ N2 P M1 G2 S

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

C D# F G A# C – C A# G F D# C

Śuddha Dhanyāsi is a rakti rāga or a rāga which pleases instantaneously. It is a tristhāyi rāga, that is, it can be sung in all three octaves. It gives rise to four other rāgas through the process of grahabhēda or modal shift of tonic.

The four rāgas are Mōhana from gāndhāra, Madhyamāvati from madhyama, Hindōḷa from pañcama and Śuddha Sāvēri from niṣāda. Gāndhāra and niṣāda are rāgachāyā svaras8 . Other than ṣaḍja and pañchama, gāndhāra and niṣāda are nyāsa svaras9 . G-N, M-N 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

Ṇ S G M P, M, P, – P, N P M G, – M G P M G S, – Ṇ S G M G G S Ṇ G S P ̣, – P ̣Ṇ S G M G, – G M P N Ṡ N P, – M,,PNP,N PMG, – G M P N, – ṠṠNP NNPM PPMG PMGS – Ṇ S G M P N Ṡ Ġ Ṁ Ġ, – Ṗ Ṁ Ġ Ṡ – P N Ġ Ṡ P, – M P N Ṡ N P M, – M G P M N N P M G S, – S P M P, N P M G, – G M G S, – S Ṇ G S P ̣, – Ṇ S G, S,

A few compositions in this rāga are:

Śrī rāja mātaṅgi (varṇam)

Harikēsanallūr Muttaiah Bhāgavatar

Enta nērchina

Tyāgarāja

Subrahmaṇyēna

Muttuswāmi Dīkṣitar

Nī samānamevaru

Varamiyyavayya

Paṭṇam Subrahmanya Iyer

Himagiri tanaye

Harikēsanallūr Muttaiah Bhāgavatar

Śrī hari vallabhe

Mysore Vāsudēvāchārya

Bhāvamulōna – Tāḷḷapākam Annamāchārya (tuned by Vidwan Nedunuri Krishnamurthy)

Nārāyaṇa ninna

Purandara Dasa

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

Sa (ṣaḍja)

Ri (riṣabha)

śuddha riṣabha

chatuśruti riṣabha

ṣaṭśruti riṣabha

Ga (gāndhāra)

śuddha gāndhāra

sādhāraṇa gāndhāra

antara gāndhāra

Ma (madhyama)

śuddha madhyama

prati madhyama

Pa (pañchama)

pañchama

Da (dhaivata)

śuddha dhaivata

chatuśruti dhaivata

ṣaṭśruti dhaivata

Ni (niṣāda)

śuddha niṣāda

kaiśiki niṣāda

kākali niṣāda

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.

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

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