Garudadhvani


Garudadhvani or Garudadhwani is a rāgam in Carnatic music. It is a janya rāgam from the 29th melakarta scale Shankarabharanam. It is a janya scale, as it does not have all the seven swaras in the descending scale. It is a combination of the sampurna raga scale Shankarabharanam and the pentatonic scale Mohanam.

Structure and Lakshana

Garudadhvani is an asymmetric rāgam that does not contain madhyamam or nishādham in the descending scale. It is an sampurna-audava rāgam. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is as follows:
The notes used in this scale are shadjam, chathusruthi rishabham, antara gandharam, shuddha madhyamam, panchamam, chathusruthi dhaivatham and kakali nishadham in ascending scale, with kakali nishadham and shuddha madhyamam skipped in descending scale. For the details of the notations and terms, see swaras in Carnatic music.
This raga has shades of western music when played in fast pace. Most of the notes are used without gamaka.

Popular compositions

There are many compositions set to Garudadhvani rāgam. Here are some popular kritis composed in Garudadhvani.

Related rāgams

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

Scale similarities

  • Mohanam has a symmetric pentatonic scale, with the notes same as the descending scale of Garudadhvani. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R2 G3 P D2 S : S D2 P G3 R2 S
  • Bilahari is a rāgam which has the ascending and descending scales interchanged, in comparison with Garudadhvani. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R2 G3 P D2 S : S N3 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S