Malahari

Carnatic Music
Concepts
Sruti • Swara • Raga • Tala • Melakarta • Asampurna Melakarta
Compositions
Varnam • Kriti • Geetham • Swarajati • Ragam Thanam Pallavi • Thillana
Instruments
melody: Vocals • Saraswati veena • Venu • Violin • Chitra veena • Nadaswaram • Mandolin rhythm: Mridangam • Ghatam • Morsing • Kanjira • Thavil drone: Tambura • Shruti box
Composers
List of Carnatic composers

Malahari (Sanskrit: मलहरि, Tamil: மலஹரி) is a Carnatic raga. This raga is a janya of the 15th Melakarta raga Mayamalavagowla. This raga is known to be a morning raga which brings out a sense of calmness.^[1] It is associated with the rainy season.^[2]

In classical carnatic training, it is often used as a raaga for beginners using Geetham right after the swara-based exercises in Mayamalavagowla. Many of the Geethams in this raga have been composed by Muthuswami Dikshitar and Purandara Dasa.

Ascending scale with C as Shadjam (tonic note)

Structure and Lakshana

Descending scale has one extra note G3

This ragam is an asymmetric scale and is classified as an audava-shadava ragam (five notes in the ascending scale and six notes in the descending scale).^[1][2]

• ārohaṇa: S R1 M1 P D1 S
• avarohaṇa: S D1 P M1 G3 R1 S

The notes in this scale are 'shuddha rishabham, shuddha madhyamam, shuddha dhaivatam in arohana and additional antara gandharam in avarohanam. Since this scale does not have a nishadham, it can be derived from Gayakapriya (13th melakarta) or Vakulabharanam (14th) too, but has been traditionally associated with Mayamalavagowla (15th) as the parent.

Select compositions

Geetams

• Shri GanaNaatha in Rupakam, written by Purandara Dasa
• Padumanaabha paramapurusha in Triputa, written by Purandara Dasa

Kuntha Gowra Keaya nee ranu

Kritis

• Panchamatanga in Rupakam composed by Muthuswami Dikshitar
• Ananta Padmanaabam in Rupakam composed by Muthiah Bhagavatar
• Melukovayya in Adi composed by Shahji Maharaja

Related rāgams

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

Scale similarities

• Karnataka Shuddha Saveri is a rāgam which has a symmetrical scale matching the ascending scale of Malahari (gandharam is entirely omitted). Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R1 M1 P D1 S : S D1 P M1 R1 S

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Raganidhi by P. Subba Rao, Pub. 1964, The Music Academy of Madras
2. ^ ^{a b} Ragas in Carnatic music by Dr. S. Bhagyalekshmy, Pub. 1990, CBH Publications