Malayamarutam

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

Malayamarutam (pronounced malayamārutam, Sanskrit: मलयमारुतम्, Tamil: மலயமாருதம்) is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is a janya rāgam (derived scale), as it does not have all the seven swaras (musical notes). This scale is used in Hindustani music in recent years by instrumentalists.^[1] This is a morning raga^[1][2] and regularly used in programmes and functions of the mornings.

Structure and Lakshana

Malayamarutam scale with shadjam at C

Malayamarutam is a symmetric rāgam that does not contain madhyamam. It is a hexatonic scale (shadava-shadava rāgam^[2] in Carnatic music classification). Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure (ascending and descending scale) is as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms):

• ārohaṇa : S R1 G3 P D2 N2 S
• avarohaṇa : S N2 D2 P G3 R1 S

The notes used in this scale are shadjam, shuddha rishabham, antara gandharam, panchamam, chathusruthi dhaivatham and kaisiki nishadam. Malayamarutam is considered a janya rāgam of Chakravakam, the 16th Melakarta rāgam, though it can be derived from Ramapriya also, by dropping madhyamam.

Popular compositions

Malayamarutam is a pleasing scale, but has only a few compositions in classical music. It has been used to score film music as well. Here are some popular kritis composed in Malayamarutam.

• Manasa Etulothune by Tyagaraja
• Karpaga Manohara;; by Papanasam Sivan
• Karunanidhiye by Purandara Dasa

Related rāgams

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

Scale similarities

• Valaji is a rāgam which does not have shuddha rishabham in both ascending and descending scales compared to Malayamarutam. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S G3 P D2 N2 S : S N2 D2 P G3 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