S-r-G-M-P-D-n-S

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A mysterious sampurna form which follows the swara set of ‘Ahir Bhairav tivra Ma’, ‘Vachaspati komal re’, or ‘Puriya Kalyan komal ni’ (I’ve also seen the scale referred to as ‘Persian Vachaspati’ and ‘Ram Puriya Kalyan’). The ‘Rampriya’ moniker derives from a congruent Carnatic raga, although it is unclear whether this is a post-hoc addition or a hint at its Hindustani origins – especially given that Amir Khan’s rendition is explicitly based on a Persian ruba’i (4-line rhyming poem) penned by Sarmand Kashani, an Armenian-born mystic who moved to India in the early 17th-century, becoming a naked faqir (wandering ascetic) and eventually being beheaded by Aurangzeb. Khan’s supposed ‘Rampriya’, said to have been recorded at the Ranchi Rotary Club Hall in 1971, soon after he had recovered from a bout of pneumonia, also features subtle touches of shuddha ma [n.b. at times, the tabla accompanist struggled: “Khan interrupts himself to explain the tempo of the ‘Ti-Re-Ki-Te’, but the…cumulative beats of his ‘jhoomra’ fall somewhere around 21 rather than 14. The incredible part is that Khansahib…managed to mould his performance around this mistaken accompaniment”]. Rampriya has since been recorded by Indore vocalist Gokulotsavji Maharaj (set to his own bandish) and Mewati esraj exponent Pamalka Karunanayake (“in love with this scale…just peculiar!”) – although stable melodic conventions are hard to discern (see other ‘open-form‘ ragas). The same scale, if interpreted along the lines of ‘Ahir Bhairav tivra Ma’, is also known as Indira Kalyan (and, if komal ga is added, it becomes the ‘Octatonic Diminished Scale’: a rotationally-symmetric sequence of ‘2-1-2-1’ interval jumps, beloved by composers such as Olivier Messiaen and recently used by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood in a fascinating raga-infused ensemble setting which carries natural chayas of the Rampriya scale). The SrGMPDnS swara-set is also a rare example of a 7-tone ‘jagged‘ scale, i.e. one with no ‘adjacent repeating intervals’ (jumps ‘1-3-2-1-2-1-2’), bringing an unpredictable, ever-shifting character to sapat taans.

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राग रामप्रिया

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Aroha: SrGMPDnS

Avroh: SnDPMGrS

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Pakad: variable, e.g. nSnDP; MGrGrS

Chalan: (open-form)

—Amir Khan (1971)—

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[ruba’i, e.g. 1:18] S(nMGPMnDSn)D D(n)P (M)P, (Gr)r, G (GrS), D(Sn) D(nD) n\D P(MP), P(MP) P(MPM) P/n(DSn)S, P(M) S(n)G, M(GrSnS)n\D(P) P(DPnDn)D (nD) n(SnS)nDP, P(MP) S\n(SnSD), (S)nSS S(nS), S(nSn)G G(MG), (SGPM)P P, (MP)M (P)M, M/P S(r)G, S(nGSMGPMP)M G\rG, rS…

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• Carnatic Origins •

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—Ragam Ramapriya (mela #52)—

(Tirupathi P. Saikumar)

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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 #10

Also compare to other members of the Kalyan raganga (designation based on the ‘Ram Puriya Kalyan’ incarnation above)

–Swara Geometries–

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• Core form: S–r–G–M–P–D–n–S

• Reverse: SRgmMdNS

• Complement: SRgmdNS

• Imperfect: 4 (re, Ga, Pa, ni)

• Detached: 1 (ni)

• Symmetries: none

• Murchanas: none

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• Quirks: ‘tivra Ma, komal ni‘ (rarest pairing) • ‘jagged‘ (no ‘adjacent interval repetitions’)

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–Global Translations–

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• Carnatic: Ramapriya (mela #52)

S-R₁-G₃-M₂-P-D₂-N₂-S

• Jazz: Lydian Dominant b2

1-b2-3-#4-5-6-b7-8

• Pitch classes (‘fret-jumps’):

0-1-4-6-7-9-10-0

(1–3–2–1–2–1–2)

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o o • • o • o o • o o • o

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• Tanpura: Sa–Pa

• Names: Rampriya, Ram Priya, Ramapriya, (‘Ram Puriya Kalyan‘ / ‘Persian Vachaspati‘)

• Transliterations: Hindi (रामप्रिया)

—Gokulotsavji Maharaj (~2010s)—