S-r-G-M-P-d-n-S

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Equivalent to ‘Basant Mukhari tivra Ma’, the SrGMPdnS swara-set – known in Carnatic music as Namanarayani, the 50th mela – has barely been played in the North. I searched hard during my quest to find matching ragas for the 32 ‘sampurna thaat’ scales (=all those with one variant each of ‘Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni’), but couldn’t find a single Hindustani experiment under the Namanarayani name – and eventually, it became the only scale from the full set of 32 thaat to have no matching recording (in fact, I couldn’t track down any uses of the scale from outside South India: although Ian Ring’s fantastic scale database includes it under the title ‘Harsh Major-Minor’). The swara-set certainly presents idiosyncratic challenges: with an irregular poorvang-uttarang bifurcation of ‘Marwa+Bhairavi’ (SrGM+PdnS), 4 of the 7 swaras are ‘imperfect’ (=with no swara 7 semitones above them), giving a generally unresolved feel – and the rare ‘tivra Ma + komal ni’ sangati weakens the role of Sa while pulling focus towards the MPd cluster, which can in turn offer hints of Todi, Poorvi, or Puriya Dhanashree. The raga also lies close to other seldom-heard Carnatic imports such as Rampriya (shuddha Dha instead) and Rishabhapriya (shuddha Re instead) – as well as Komal Ramkali (komal ga instead). My hope is that bold Hindustani artists will soon take on the challenge of Namanarayani’s curious geometries…send in your renditions!

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राग नमनारायानी

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• Carnatic Origins •

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—Ragam Namanarayani (mela #50)—

(Padmavathi Saranathan)

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–All ragas of Carnatic origin–

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• Classifiers •

Explore hidden inter-raga connections: swara geometries, melodic features, murchana sets, ragangas, & more (also see the Full Tag List):

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Swaras: -4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10+

Sapta: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

Poorvang: SRGM | SRG | SRM | SGM

Uttarang: PDNS | PDS | PNS | DNS

Varjit: Re | Ga | Ma | Pa | Dha | Ni

Thaat: 10 | 32 | Enclosed | Inexact

Chal: All-shuddha | All-komal | Ma-tivra

Gaps: Anh. | Hemi. | 3-row | 4-row | 5-row

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Aroha: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

Avroh: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

Jati: Equal | Balanced | Av.+1 | Av.+2

Samay: Morning | Aftern. | Eve. | Night

Construction: Jod | Mishra | Oddball

Origin: Ancient | Carnatic | Modern

Dominance: Poorvang | Uttarang

Prevalence: A-list | Prachalit | Aprach.

• Prakriti: Thaat #12

–Swara Geometries–

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• Core form: S–r–G–M–P–d–n–S

• Reverse: SRGmMdNS

• Complement: SRgmDNS

• Imperfect: 4 (Ga, Pa, dha, ni)

• Detached: 2 (Ga, ni)

• Symmetries: none

• Murchanas: (none found)

–Global Translations–

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• Carnatic: Namanarayani (mela #50)

S-R₁-G₃-M₂-P-D₁-N₂-S

• Jazz: Lydian b2 b6 b7

1-b2-3-#4-5-b6-b7-8

• Pitch classes (‘fret-jumps’):

0-1-4-6-7-8-10-0

(1–3–2–1–1–2–2)

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o o • • o • o o o • o • o

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• Tanpura: Sa–Pa

• Names: Namanarayani

• Transliterations: Hindi (नमनारायानी); Punjabi (ਨਾਮਨਾਰਾਇਣੀ); Malayalam (നാമനാരായണി); Tamil (நாமநாராயணி); Telugu (నామనారాయణి)