Sahana (raga)


Sahana is a popular ragam in Carnatic music. It is a janya rāgam associated with the 28th Melakarta rāgam Harikambhoji.
The Hindustani music ragam Sahana is an upper-tetrachord-dominant Kanada-anga raga, from the Kafi thaat, also allied with Bageshree and Bhimpalasi. The shuddha Dhaivat is an important rest note.

Structure and Lakshana

It is a Ubhaya Vakra sampoorna ragam. Vakra means crooked. Ubhaya Vakra means that the notes in both ascent and descent follow a zig zag pattern. The notes in ascending and descending scale do not follow a strict progression. Hence the note phrases contain such vakra phrases, lending a unique beauty to this rāgam. Though it is a sampoorna rāgam, the vakra scale means it is not considered a melakarta, as melakarta rāgams must have strictly ascending and descending scales. It is also classified as a rakti raga.
Its structure is as follows :
  • Arohana|:
  • Avarohana|:
The notes used in this scale are Shadjam, Chathusruthi Rishabham, Antara Gandharam, Suddha Madhyamam, Panchamam, Chathusruthi Dhaivatham and Kaisiki Nishadham.
Its characteristic phrases are,,,. Sahana has a distinct mood due to these phrases and characteristic gamakams and is rarely confused with other ragams.
Sahana has a close relationship to Malavi and to some extent Dwijawanthi/Jujavanti. While the use of Anthara Gaandharam in R2 G2 R2 makes it different from Dwijawanthi, since Dwijawanthi uses Saadharana Gaandharam, sahana has a closer relationship with Malavi which has an identical Vakra scale formation as Sahana.

The original Sahana of Carnatic music

The original Sahana is the janya ragam of Sri melakarta.It is "bhashanga", "sampurna", "desiya", panchama "vakra" in arohanam and suitable for singing at all times.The raga is a desiya raga meaning it made its way to theory, from practice. It was evolved in the public domain, enjoyed the airtime with listeners and musicians and then it became important enough to be inducted into the portals of our music as a formal raga, distinct in its svarupa, appeal and capable of being moulded into compositions. The jeeva swaras : - rishabham, - gandharam and - nishadam provide extraordinary ranjana. Synonyms : Chahana, Shahana, sahana.
Arohanam :
Avarohanam :
The swaras are -Shadjam, - Chaturshruti rishabham, - Sadharana gandharam, * - Antara Gandharam, - Shuddha madhyamam, - Panchamam, - Chaturshruti dhaivatham and -Kaishiki nishadam.
The ragam is bhashaga because; * - Anthara gandharam occurs sparingly.
Reference :

Select compositions

There are a large number of popular songs composed in this rāgam in Carnatic Music as well as Tamil Film Music. Here are some Carnatic music compositions.

Tamil Language

  • "Indha Veenaiku Theriyadhu" by V. S. Narasimhan
  • "Aanmaavin Raagam" by Rajesh Vaidhya
  • "Jeevan Neeye" by Renjith Unni

    Film songs

Tamil Language

SongMovieComposerSinger
Thamiyen PainthamizhSivakaviPapanasam SivanM. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar
Pathiniye Unpol ItharaimeethinilKannagiS. V. VenkataramanP. U. Chinnappa
Paarthen SirithenVeera AbhimanyuK. V. MahadevanP.B. Sreenivas, P. Susheela
EnnamellamThirumanamS. M. Subbaiah NaiduT. M. Soundararajan
Nee Engey EnMannippuS. M. Subbaiah NaiduP. Susheela
Engo pirandavaramBommaiS. BalachanderP. Susheela
Aadhi nathan ketkindranGanga GowriM.S. ViswanathanT. M. Soundararajan, S. Janaki
Azhage Sugama Parthale ParavasamA. R. RahmanSrinivas, Sadhana Sargam
Rukku RukkuAvvai ShanmughiDevaKamal Haasan, Sujatha
Indhu Maha Samudrame
MannavaDevaHariharan, K. S. Chithra
PootheneEera NilamSirpyChinmayi

Malayalam Language

SongMovieComposerSinger
Chentharmizhi poonthen mozhiPerumazhakkalamM. JayachandranMadhu Balakrishnan, K. S. Chithra, Sharada Kalyanasundaram
Ennodenthinu PinakakmKaliyattamKaithapram Damodaran NamboothiriBhavana Radhakrishnan
Naadha ne varumbol ee yaamamVaasthavamAlex PaulK. S. Chitra, Pradeep Palluruthy
Thamarapoovil vazhumChandralekhaBerny-IgnatiusM. G. Sreekumar

Telugu Language

SongMovieComposerSinger
ఆకాశ పందిరిలోశ్రీ రాజేశ్వరీ విలాస్ కాఫీక్లబ్PendyalaSusheela