Bhupalam

Bhupalam is a rāgam in Carnatic music. It is a pentatonic scale. It is a janya rāgam, as it does not have all the seven swaras. It is also written as Bhoopalam.
It is considered an auspicious scale and a morning rāgam. In Tamil music, this scale is called Puranirmai pann and some thevarams are set to this scale. It is also used for chanting slokas, folks songs, Kathakali music and other rituals. The equivalent scale in Hindustani music is Bhupal Todi.

Structure and Lakshana

Bhupalam is a symetric rāgam that does not contain, madhyamam or nishādham. It is a symmetric pentatonic scale. Its ascending and descending scale is as follows:

Arohana| :
Avarohana| :

The notes used in this scale are shadjam, shuddha rishabham, sadharna gandharam, panchamam and shuddha dhaivatham, as per Carnatic music notation and terms for the swaras. Bhupalam is considered a janya rāgam of Shubhapantuvarali, the 45th Melakarta rāgam, though it can be derived from 5 other melakarta rāgams by dropping both the madhyamam and nishādham.

Popular compositions

Bhupalam rāgam lends itself for good elaboration and has a few compositions in both classical music and film music. Here are some popular songs composed in Bhupalam.

Sadhu Vibhatam and Nijadasanam Prathi composed by Swati Tirunal
Samajendra composed by Swati Tirunal is actually in Bowli but Bowli used to be called Bhupalam in the Travancore region back then
Annai Janaki by Arunachala Kavi
Sadachaleshwaram by Muthuswami Dikshitar
Deena Janavana by Thyagaraja
Tillana by Maharaja Swathi Thirunal
Gopalaka Pahimam is popular krithi by Maharaja Swathi Thirunal rendered in Raga Revagupti nowadays, though originally it was set in the Raga Bhupalam
Kshanameva Ganya Manye by Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi
Kadamba Vana Vasini by Muthiah Bhagavatar
Mannum Imaya Malai by Bharathiyar
Film Songs

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Related rāgams

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

''Graha bhedham''

Bhupalam's notes when shifted using Graha bhedham, yields two pentatonic rāgams, Gambhiranata and Hamsanadam. Graha bhedham is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the shadjam to the next note in the rāgam. We get Hamsanadam by shifting the Shadjam to Shuddha Rishabham. For more details and illustrations of this concept refer Graha bhedham on Gambhiranata.

Scale similarities

Revagupti rāgam differs from Bhupalam only by the gāndhāram. It uses antara gāndhāram instead of sadharana gāndhāram and its ' structure is S R1 G3 P D1 S : S D1 P G3 R1 S
Bhauli rāgam uses an additional nishadam in descending scale, in comparison to Revagupti above. Its ' structure is S R1 G3 P D1 S : S N3 D1 P G3 R1 S
Karnataka Shuddha Saveri rāgam uses shuddha madhyamam in place of sadharana gandharam of Bhupalam. Its structure is S R1 M1 P D1 S : S D1 P M1 R1 S