Mayamalavagowla
Mayamalavagowla is a raga of Carnatic music. It is classified as 15th melakarta raga under Venkatamakhin's melakarta system. Originally known as malavagowla, "maya" was prefixed to it after the advent of the scheme of the 72 melas. The number 15 was assigned to it following the Katapayadi sankhya system. This is a morning raga.
Structure and Lakshana
Venkatamakhin defines its lakshana thus:Mayamalavagowla is the 3rd raga in the 3rd chakra, Agni. Its mnemonic name is Agni-Go. Its mnemonic phrase is sa ra gu ma pa dha nu. Its structure is as follows, but instead of labeling the 3 Ga-s and the 3 Ni-s using, some authors have used instead. :
- [Arohana|]:
- [Avarohana|]:
The gamakas in the raga are unique in that conversely to the G-M relationship in Śankarābharaṇaṃ, G is sung in oscillation while M is held constant. There is no bold M-P gamaka as in Śankarābharaṇaṃ as well. R and D are also usually sung in oscillation with S and P respectively, making the only constant notes S, M, and P. Of course, these rules are occasionally broken for effect.
Nature of raga
This auspicious raga evokes śānta ''rasa and pathos. It creates a soothing effect, suitable to sing at all times, particularly, the first prātaḥ-sandhyā-kālaṃ. It is commonly used for beginners' lessons such as Sarali Varisais or Sarala Svarās, etc. Since it eschews vivadi swaras, has a uniform distance between svara sthānas and has symmetry, they are easier to learn. It is an ancient rāgam.It is a Sampurna raga. Also, it is a sarva svara gamaka vārika rakti rāga. It has a large number of janya ragas assigned to it. This rāgam corresponds to Bhairav in Hindustani music. It is called as a "rakti" raga because of its high melodic content.
It is also defined as a mūrcana kāraka méLa since it can be used for Graha bhedam on madhyamam and rishabham to result in Simhendramadhyamam and Rasikapriya respectively. Graha bhedam is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the Shruti to another note in the rāgam. For further details and an illustration refer Graha bhedam on Māyamālavagowla''.
''Janya'' ragams
Mayamalavagowla has quite a few janya ragams associated with it, of which Bowli, Jaganmohini, Gowla, Gowlipantu, Lalita, Nadanamakriya, Revagupti, Saveri and Malahari are quite well known. See List of janya Ragas for a full list of janyas.Popular compositions
All the basic swara exercises are set to the Mayamalavagowla raga. These are learnt by beginners in Carnatic music. It is commonly used in the basics, credited to Purandara Dasa's work in his time, when he did much work towards standardizing the teaching of Carnatic music into a fully graded system. The first mini-songs that are taught after the completion of basic exercises are set to Malahari, a janya of Mayamalavagowla. Muthuswami Dikshitar's famous kritis, on Goddess Nilothpalamba has for one of them.A list of popular compositions in Mayamalalavagowla is as follows.varnam – śrī rājarājēśvari – Unknown Composervarnam – Om Pranava Vimala – Koranadu Natesa PillaiTulasī-daḻamulacē Saṃtōṣamuga – Tyagaraja in TeluguMēru-samāna-dhira – Tyagaraja in TeluguRakṣimpavē – Tyagaraja in TeluguDēvī Śrī tulasammā – Tyagaraja in TeluguVidulaku Mrokkeda – Tyagaraja in TeluguDēva Dēva Kalayāmi – Swathi ThirunalKailāsa nilaya dayāsāgara – Mahesh Mahadev in SanskritMāyātīta Svarūpiṇi – Ponniah Pillai in SanskritŚrīnāthādi Guruguho jayati – Muthuswami Dikshitar in SanskritNīlothpalāmbikāyāha – Muthuswami Dikshitar in SanskritŚyāmalāmbikē pāhi māṃ – Dr. M. BalamuralikrishnaĀdi Kondār – Muthu Thandavar.ādityaṃ dēvādi-dēvaṃ akhilāṇḍa-nāthaṃ āśrayē – Muthiah BhagavatarDina-maṇi-vaṃśa dīna-janāvana – Muthiah BhagavatarHara mṛtyuñjaya ambikā-nāyaka hari kamalāsana – Muthiah BhagavatarPopular Adi tala varnam- Sarasija-nābha – Swathi ThirunalAvadh sukhdāyi bājē badhāyī ratan simhāsan par – Swathi ThirunalSivaloka Nathanai – Gopalakrishna Bharathi Natanam Adinar Ayyan – Gopalakrishna BharathiAmbā yuvati jaganmātē akhila-janani dayānidhē – Ashok R MadhavBhaja rē mānasa vraja-bālaṃ – Swarajathi – H YoganarasimhanCaraṇaṃ śaraṇaṃ ayyappā – Ganapati SacchidanandaCintayāmi santataṃ – G SampathCintayehaṃ jānaki-kāntaṃ santataṃ cintitārtha – Mysore VasudevacharyaDaśaratha-nandana – Mysore VasudevacharyaDaasoham Tava Daasoham By Jagannatha DasaDēva-dēveśa – R K SuryanarayanaDēva-dēvōttama – GovindacharyaManamirangadha Irwiva - Swarna Venkatesa Dikshitar Dēvi kāmākṣi para-śiva-dēhārtha – Ogirala Viraraghava SharmaDurgā lakṣmi sarasvati – Lalita VenkataramanSamayamide – Patnam Subramania IyerKāmākṣīṃ kamalākṣīṃ – R K PadmanabhaJaya jagadisha hare – JayadevaKrpakari shankari karunakari kapalishvari – Rukmini RamaniMantra svarupam – Bangalore S MukundKshira jaladhi niketana – Pallavur Mani IyerKshira sagara shayana raksha shara nivasini – Jayachamaraja wodeyarMaya mohini maheshvari – Mangalam GanapatiKaladevathe Saraswathi – V. DakshinamoorthyThondi Sariya Mayire – Arunagirinatharvarnam– from – Nallan Chakravarthy Murthy
This raga has also been very popularly used in film music. Numerous well recognized songs have been set in this raga. Ilayaraja has composed many hit songs in this raga.