Madhyamavathi

Madhyamavati (pronounced "Madhyamāvati", sanskrit मध्यमावति, tamil மத்தியமாவதி) is a rāgam (musical scale) in Carnatic music (South Indian classical music). It is an audava rāgam (or owdava rāgam, meaning pentatonic scale ). It is a janya rāgam (derived scale), as it does not have all the seven swaras (musical notes).

The equivalent of Madhyamavati in Hindustani music is "Madhumad Sarang" "Raganidhi" by P. Subba Rao, Pub. 1964, The Music Academy of Madras] .

It is considered a very auspicious rāgam and every Carnatic music concert ends with either a song in Madhyamavati or the ending of the last song is sung in this rāgam "Ragas in Carnatic music" by Dr. S. Bhagyalekshmy, Pub. 1990, CBH Publications] .

This rāgam is very suitable for elaboration and exploration due to even spacing of notes (it uses the first 3 notes of the cycle of 5^ths "Sa, Pa and R2" and 4^ths "Sa M1 and N2" ).

tructure and Lakshana

Madhyamavati is a symmetric rāgam that does not contain "Gāndhāram" or "Dhaivatam". It is a pentatonic scale (audava-audava ragam in Carnatic music classification - audava meaning 'of 5').Its IAST|ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure (ascending and descending scale) is as follows (see "swaras in Carnatic music" for details on below notation and terms):

*IAST|ārohaṇa : S R2 M1 P N2 S
*IAST|avarohaṇa : S N2 P M1 R2 S(Chathusruthi Rishabham, Suddha Madhyamam, Panchamam, Kaisiki Nishadham)

Madhyamavati is considered a "janya" rāgam of "Kharaharapriya", the 22^nd Melakarta rāgam, though it can be derived from other melakarta rāgams, "Charukesi", "Natabhairavi" or "Harikambhoji", by dropping both "Gāndhāram" and "Dhaivatam".

Popular Compositions

"Madhyamavati" rāgam lends itself for extensive elaboration and exploration and has many compositions. Here are some popular "kritis" composed in Madhyamavati.

*"Rama katha sudha", "Allagallalla", "Nadupai", "Muchchada brahma" and "Nagumomu galaneni" by Thyagaraja
*"Palimsu kamakshi" by Shyama Sastri
*"Ramabhirama" by Mysore Vasudevachar
*"Saravanabhava" and "Karpagame kan" by Papanasam Sivan

Related rāgams

This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam.

Graha bedham

Mohanam's notes when shifted using Graha bedham, yields 4 other major pentatonic rāgams, namely, "Mohanam", "Hindolam", "Shuddha Saveri" and "Udayaravichandrika" (also known as "Suddha Dhanyasi"). Graha bedham is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the Shadjam to the next note in the rāgam. See Graha bedham on Mohanam for more details and illustration of this concept.

cale similarities

*"Kedāragowla" is a rāgam which has the ascending scale of Madhyamavati and descending scale of "Harikambhoji". Its IAST|ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R2 M1 P N2 S : S N2 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S
*"Manirangu" is a rāgam which has "Gāndhāram" in the descending scale, while all other notes in both the ascending and descending scale are same as Madhyamavati. Its IAST|ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R2 M1 P N2 S : S N2 P M1 G2 R2 S

References