Mayamalavagowla

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Mayamalavagowla (known as māyāmāḻavagouḻa, मायामाळवगोळ in Sanskrit), is a raga of Carnatic Music that is classified as Mela Raga #15 under Venkatamakhin's Sampoorna Melakarta system, appearing in the Agni Chakra therein. Originally known as malavagowla, "maya" was prefixed to it after the advent of the scheme of the 72 melas. the number of 15 was assigned to it following the katapayAdi sankhya system.

[edit] Structure and Lakshana

Venkatamakhin defines its lakshana thus:

पूऱ्णो माळवगोळाख्यह् स ग्रहो गीयते सदा

pūrṇo māḻavagouḻākhyah sa graho gīyate sadā

Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is as follows:

  • S R1 G3 M1 P D1 N3 S
  • S N3 D1 P M1 G3 R1 S

(Suddha Rishabham, Antara Gandharam, Suddha Madhyamam, Suddha Dhaivatham, Kakali Nishadham - sa ra gu ma dha nu)

[edit] Nature of Raga

This auspicious raga evokes shAntha(peace) rasa and pathos, and creates a soothing effect. Suitable to sing at all times, particularly, the first yAMam (dawn). It is commonly used for beginners lessons such as Sarali Varisais etc.. since it eschews vivAdi swaras and has a uniform distance between swarasthAnas, expressing symmetry and therefore easier to learn. It is an ancient ragam and has been around for a long time.

It is a sampurna raga. Also, it is a sarva swara gamaka varika rakthi raga. It has a large number of janya ragas assigned to it. Compisitions in this raga start with S, G, D and N. This ragam corresponds to Bhairavam in Hindustani music. It is also defined as a mūrcana kāraka mELa since it can be used for grahabedha in ma and ri to result in simhendra madhyamam and rasikapriya respectively.

Some of the popular compositions in Mayamalavagowla Deva Deva, composed by Swathi Thirunal and Adikkondar by Muthu thandavar.

[edit] Janya Ragas and Compositions

Not Particularly a composition, but all the Basic Preliminary Swara Exercises (Sarali, Jantai etc) are set to the Mayamalavagowla Raga can readily be picked up by beginners to Carnatic Music, hence its common use in the basics, credited to Purandara Dasa's work in his time when he did much work towards standardising the teaching of Carnatic Music into a fully graded system. Muthuswami Diskhitar's famous gouḻānta krithis (eight kritis with their raga names ending as gowla), on Goddess Nilothpalamba has māyāmāḻavagouḻa for one of the Krithis.

It has a number of janya ragas, some of the popular ones being Jaganmohini, Gowla, Malahari etc.

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