Saramati

Saramati is a ragam in Carnatic music. It is a janya rāgam from the 20th melakarta scale Natabhairavi. It is a janya scale, as it does not have all the seven swaras in the descending scale.

Structure and Lakshana

Saramati is an asymmetric rāgam that does not contain panchamam or rishabham in the descending scale. It is a combination of the sampurna raga scale Natabhairavi and pentatonic scale Hindolam. It is an sampurna-audava rāgam. Its structure is as follows:

Arohana| :
Avarohana| :

The notes used in this scale are shadjam, chathusruthi rishabham, sadharana gandharam, panchamam, shuddha dhaivatham and kaisiki nishadham in ascending scale, with panchamam and rishabham dropped in descending scale. For the details of the notations and terms, see swaras in Carnatic music.

Popular compositions

A few compositions have been set to Saramati rāgam.

Mokshamugalada by Tyagaraja
Narasimhana Pada by Purandara Dasa
Sarasadala Nayane by Muthiah Bhagavatar
Enna Thunivai by Marimuthu Pillai
Sri Ramabadhra by Papanasam Sivan
Manasaramati by Thanjavur Shankara Iyer
Sri Saradamba Bhaje by H. H. Sri Bharathi Tirtha Mahaswamigal
Unnata Venkata by Thulaseevanam
Arula Vendum Thaaye by M. M. Dandapani Desikar
Sharade Namaste and Saramati Saraswati by Kalyani Varadarajan
Unnai Anri by Dr. Lalgudi Jayaraman
Nadamadum Deivame by Maharajapuram Santhanam
Bharatha Nannaadu by N. S. Chidambaram
Ramam Bhaje by Y. K. Srikantaiah

Music composer Ilaiyaraaja has set the Tyagaraja krithi "Mari Mari Ninne" to this Raga in the movie Sindhu Bhairavi, even though the actual Krithi is in the Raga Kambhoji.

Film Songs

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Language:[Kannada]

Related rāgams

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

Scale similarities

Hindolam has a symmetric pentatonic scale, with the notes same as the descending scale of Saramati. Its structure is S G2 M1 D1 N2 S : S N2 D1 M1 G2 S