Nagasvaravali

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

Nāgasvarāvaḻi, (Sanskrit: नागस्वरावळि, Tamil: நாகஸ்வராவளி) is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an audava rāgam (or owdava, meaning pentatonic scale). It is a janya rāgam (derived scale), as it does not have all the seven swaras (musical notes).

Structure and Lakshana

Nāgasvarāvaḻi scale with shadjam at C

Nāgasvarāvaḻi is a symmetric rāgam that does not contain rishabham or nishādam. It is a pentatonic scale (audava-audava ragam^[1][2] in Carnatic music classification - audava meaning 'of 5'). 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 G3 M1 P D2 S
• avarohaṇa : S D2 P M1 G3 S

(the notes used in this musical scale are shadjam, antara gandharam, shuddha madhyamam, panchamam, chathusruti dhaivatam)

Nāgasvarāvaḻi is considered a janya rāgam of Harikambhoji, the 28th Melakarta rāgam, though it can be derived from other melakarta rāgams, Chakravakam, Sooryakantam, Shankarabharanam, Vagadheeswari or Shoolini, by dropping both rishabham and nishādam.

Popular compositions

Nāgasvarāvaḻi rāgam has a few compositions in classical music.

• Sreepate neepada by Thyagaraja
• Gamganapathe sada by Jayachamaraja Wodeyar
• Sree sankara guruvaram by Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer

Related rāgams

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

Graha bedham

Nāgasvarāvaḻi's notes when shifted using Graha bedham, yields another popular pentatonic rāgam, Hamsadhwani. Graha bedham is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the shadjam to the next note in the rāgam. For more details and illustration of this concept refer Graha bedham on Hamsadhwani.

Scale similarities

• Mohanam is a rāgam which has chathusruthi rishabham in place of the shuddha madhyamam. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R2 G3 P D2 S : S D2 P G3 R2 S

References

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