Shree (Carnatic raga)
Shri ragam is an ancient ragam in the Carnatic tradition. It is also written as Sri or Sreeraga. This scale does not have all the seven swaras in the ascending scale. Shree is the asampurna melakartha equivalent of Kharaharapriya, the 22nd Melakarta rāgam. It is the last of the 5 Ghana rāgams of Carnatic music. It is a popular rāgam that is considered to be highly auspicious.
Notably, Carnatic Shree takes the lower madhyamam being the asampurna scale equivalent of Kharaharapriya. It is not related to the Hindustani raga, Shree.
Structure and Lakshana
Shree is an asymmetric rāgam that does not contain gāndhāram or dhaivatam in the ascending scale. It is a audava-vakra-sampurna rāgam, where vakra indicates the zig-zag nature of jumping notes in descending scale. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is as follows :This scale uses the notes chatushruti rishabham, sadharana gandharam, shuddha madhyamam, panchamam, chatushruti dhaivatam and kaisiki nishadam.
Popular compositions
Shree rāgam has been decorated with compositions by many composers. A few of the popular kritis are listed here.- Sami ninnekori, a Varnam by Karur Devudu Iyer in Telugu
- Mayanai - 5th Thiruppavai by Andal tuned by Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar
- The fifth Pancharatna Kriti ''Endaro Mahanubhavulu, Nama Kumusumamula and Yuktamu Gaadhu by Tyagaraja in Telugu
- Sri Varalakshmi, Sri Muladhara Chakra Vinayaka, Sri Kamalambike, Sri Abhayamba, Sri Vishvanatham Bhaje, Tyagaraja Mahadhvajaaroha and Kameshvarena Samrakshitoham by Muthuswami Dikshitar in Sanskrit
- Karuna Judu Ninnu by Shyama Shastri in Telugu
- Vanajasana Vinuta composed by Subbaraya Shastri in Telugu
- Bhavayami Nanda and Reena Madadritha by Swathi Thirunal
- Vande Vasudevam, Dinamu Dwadasi Nedu, O! Pavanatmaja O! Ghanuda by Annamacharya
- Bandanene Ranga, Adi Varahana by Purandara Dasa in Kannada
- Mangalam Arul and Ramam Bhajatha Manuja by Papanasam Sivan in Tamil
- Annaiye by Koteeswara Iyer
- Karuna Cheyvan Enthu by Irayimman Thampi in Malayalam-originally in Yadukulakamboji
- Mahaganapathe'' by R N Doraiswamy
Related rāgams
This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam.Scale similarities
- Madhyamavati is a rāgam which has a symmetric ascending and descending scale, which matches the ascending scale of Shree. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R2 M1 P N2 S : S N2 P M1 R2 S
- Manirangu is a rāgam which has gāndhāram in the descending scale, while all other notes in both the ascending and descending scale are same as Madhyamavati. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R2 M1 P N2 S : S N2 P M1 G2 R2 S