Anandabhairavi


Anandabhairavi or Ananda Bhairavi is a very old melodious ragam of Carnatic music. This rāgam also used in Indian traditional and regional musics. Ānandam means happiness and the rāgam brings a happy mood to the listener.
It is a janya rāgam of the 20th Melakarta rāgam Natabhairavi.
Its structure is as follows :
  • [Arohana|] :
  • [Avarohana|] :
It is a sampoorna rāgam – rāgam having all 7 swarams, but it is not a melakarta rāgam, as it has and uses in comparison with its parent rāgam. The anya swaram is the usage of shuddha dhaivatham '''' in some phrases of the rāgam.
Anandabhairavi ragam is also a rāgam, since it uses more than one anya swaram. Anya swaram of a rāgam is the swaram which does not belong to the arohana or avarohana of its melakarta, but it is sung in . It is also classified as a "rakti" raga.

Swara phrases

The three of are, and kakali nishadham. All of these anya swaras occur only in . "G3" occurs in "ma pa ma ga ga ma", and "D1" occurs in "ga ma pa da". Subtler than the first two, "N3" occurs in "sa da ni sa."
It is said that Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar do not use any of the in their compositions.
Anandabhairavi also has unique swara patterns both in manodharma and in its compositions. The popular patterns are "sa ga ga ma", "sa pa", and "sa ga ma pa". The musician isn't allowed to stay long on nishadam, this characteristic distinguishes it from Reetigowla. Few allied ragas to this are Reetigowla and Huseni.

Popular compositions

Anandabhairavi is one of the favourite ragams of Syama Sastri. He is said to have made this a popular rāgam and also to have given the present form for this rāgam. More or less Anandabhairavi's synonym is "Marivere gati" by Syama Sastri. In "Mariverae" and in "O Jagadhamba" Syama Sastri uses the anya swara "ga".
Musicologist N. Mammathu identifies the song Yaadhum Oore from the album Sandham: Symphony Meets Classical Tamil by composer Raleigh Rajan as a defining illustration of Anandabhairavi, because it explores a wide range of phrases, rules, and exceptions characteristic of the ragam. 
A very life changing incident is said to have happened in Tyagaraja's life. Once he is said to have attended a Kuchipudi Bhagavata artists dance-drama recital, a ballad between mythological characters Radha and Krishna, and he is said to have highly praised their performance, especially a particular song Madhura Nagarilo, which was again set in Ananda Bhairavi. Tyagaraja wanting to acknowledge them offered to give them a gift, of anything that they may desire, that he could possibly give. After much thought they demanded him the Ragam Ananda Bhairavi itself as a gift, so that when someone in the near future spoke of Tyagaraja or Ananda Bhairavi's legacy they would also remember the Kuchipudi dancers too.