4 minute read
Majestic & Mighty Mohanam
from Oct 2022
By Jyothi Neelakantan
I feel the memory of some songs operates like the memory of food for us.
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They stay in our minds for a long because they are delicious and leave an indelible impression because of their beautiful flavoured smell. Songs composed in the Carnatic music Ragam Mohanam are like that for me.
They are very pleasant, bright, simple, energetic, easy to learn, and meditative. Such are the features of compositions in this ragam.
Mohana has only five swaras in its Arohana and Avarohana. Such ragam is called Audava ragam – the equivalent of a pentatonic scale in Western music style.
Frequencies of Mohana ragam:
Sa Ri Ga Pa Dha
100 Hz, 111.1 Hz, 125 Hz, 150 Hz, 166.6 Hz
The Swaras are S, R2, G3, P and D2. On a lighter note, students are instructed to remember that Mohana has no lust for money since M and N are absent from it.
The Janta and Dhatu Swara applications make it reach different levels of enjoyment. Emotionally, Mohana can bring out feelings of Veera (courage), Bhakti (devotion), Karuna (compassion), and Rudra (anger). Its parent ragam – Harikamboji, is the 28th Melakartha ragam, considered one of the oldest ragas and believed to be more than 1,000 years old.
Carnatic Song Nannu Palimpa by Maestro Of Carnatic Music - Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna
No doubt, it is universally popular. It is found in the tribal music of many nations - Hungary, Sweden, Mongolia, Russia, Australia, Europe, USA. Many Chinese tunes are in this ragam, and interestingly, the national anthem of Thailand, Japan, and Burma are composed in this ragam. Many Malaysian dance songs are composed in Mohana ragam, and accompanied by Sapeh, the plucked lute. Since countries like Malaysia and Thailand have adopted Ramayana in their theatrical plays, their theatre arts also have the influence of Mohanam.
The National anthem of Malaysia "Negaraku"
Did you know? Among the Trinity, Muttu Swami Diksitar (Left), Saint Tyagaraja (Middle) have compositions in Mohana ragam, but strangely, we don't have any composition by Shyama Shastri (Right).
In Hindustani music, the equivalent of Mohana raga is Bhoopali or Bhoop, which has the same swaras and belongs to the Kalyan Thaat. It’s an evening raga, which is considered to bring tranquillity and has an emphasis given to ‘Gandhara’. It is melodious and soothing when rendered well.
Gujarti Ghazal
Mohanam is an auspicious ragam that features in all Carnatic concerts and fits nicely in all categories of music like varnam, geetam, slokam, kritis, tillana, javali, viruttam, and mangalam. In Hindustani music, this ragam is also easily adapted to various forms such as khayal, dhrupad, thumri, bhajan, trivat, and tarana.
SPONTANEOUS OUTPOUR
A famous Kriti in Mohanam was written by Sri Tyagaraja because of a life incident. The story goes that his daughter’s marriage was fixed, but his favourite disciple - Venkataramana, was out in his village and was nowhere to be seen. As the wedding approached, Sri Tyagaraja became quite agitated about Venkataramana’s absence.
Saint Thyagaraja (on right) with his direct disciple Venkataramana Bhagavathar (on left)
Nearer to the wedding, Venkataramana was spotted approaching the saints' home with a heavy portrait of Tyagaraja's favourite deity - Sri Rama. He had brought this as a gift for his Guru's daughter.
All the built-up emotions inside Tyagaraja Swami spontaneously burst out in the form of this beautiful Kriti - Nanu Palimpa, which means - “you walked all the way to save me.”
Countless musicians have composed this ragam except for Shyama Shastri, which to me, is a mystery. Do you have any additional information about this ragam, another jewel to this crown, that you would like to share? Do tell this humble student.
