Anandabhairavi

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Anandabhairavi is a very old melodious raga. It is found even in Indian folk music.It is a form of happiness.

It is a janya ragam (i.e. it inherits some of the properties from one of the 72 melakartha ragams). Its melakartha ragam is karaharapriya (literally lovely to ears) although some suggest that it is janya of Natabhairavi. It is vakra ragam since its arohana is not in proper sequence. For example its arohana is "sa ga(1) ri(2) ga(1) ma(1) pa da(2) pa sa" (we can see that before "ri" "ga" comes and after "da", "pa" comes. These two technicalities makes this raga vakram but only in arohana. In avarohana it is normal namely, it is "sa ni(1) da(2) pa ma(1) ga(1) ri(2) sa". In arohana and avarohana I use (1)/(2) to tell if it is first variant of that swara or the second variant.

The Anandabhairavi raga is also a bhasanga raga, since it uses more than one anyaswaram (alien swara in English language). Anyaswara of a raga is the swara which does not belong to the arohana avarohana of its mela (thai) raga but it is sung in prayogams (raga alopana, kalpanaswara)/ it may be found in arohana/avarohana itself (like Bhairavi).

Anandabhairavi is one of the favourite raga of Shyamashashtri. More or less Anandabhairavi's synonym is "Mariverae" by Shyamashashthri. The three annyaswaras of Anandabhairavi are "ga(2)", "da(1)" and "ni(2)". But all these annyaswaras occur only in prayogas not in arohana avarohana. "ga(2)" occurs in "ma pa ma ga ga ma", "da(1)" occurs in "ga ma pa da". Generally "ni(2)" is not sung these days. Surprising thing is Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar do not use any of the annyaswara in their compositions. But in "Mariverae" and in "O jagadhamba" Shyamashashtri uses the annyaswara "ga(2)". It allows a medium level of manodharmam (meaning not very elaborate raga alapanas and kalpanaswaram can be sung in this raga). Few allied ragas (similar) to this are Ritigowla and Huseni.