IshamanOhari

[SrinathK]

IshamanOhari is a rAgA under the 28th mEla which still exists in more or less its original form even today. However, with the rise and rise of harikAmbhOji as a full fledged rAgA from Thyagaraja's time onward (and probably always having lived in the shadow of other rAgAs even before that), IshamanOhari has become a really rare, minor rAgA today -- seldom appearing except when the occasional kriti calls for it. I do not think most audiences are even aware that it exists, and if it weren't for the few kritis in it, it would have gone extinct.

The rAgA sounds like a dEsi version of harikAmbhOji (I use 'dEsi' when I think of plainer and simpler, more "folksy") using mainly plain notes with some more non-linear possibilities snatched from kEdAragauLa and even showing shades of modern bangAla here and there.

Apart from that a key distinguishing feature is the use of the N3 as an extra note in phrases like SN3S or MGRSN3 or RN3S, which are the only places where you see it - and this makes it stand out. Indeed, this is the most singular feature of IshamanOhari.

I was able to find an article about it here : http://madhuragaana.blogspot.com/2007/1 ... ohari.html

The phrases of the rAgA can be discussed better with examples. So starting with the Dikshitar kriti - Sri gananAtham bhajarE -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq7zX9yB2Yk - by the one and only MDR, who turns even these simple songs into classical gems.

In this kriti, we see - S,RGR, RGMP | N,DPM | G,RSN3S (note the use of both N2 and N3) in the opening line. In the anupallavi, at "sutra dharam" - PSN3S appears -- with the use of PS overlapping with bangAla. In the charaNam, we have a lot of non linear phrases like RGMRGSR or SGRM GPM - PGMR GMP, so the rAgA lends itself well to dhATTU gamakas

The rAgA uses both MGRS, MGGRS and MRGRS as well, including a very nArAyaNagauLa-ish PDM at some places too. Also RGMR and PMGMR even remind you of pUrnachandrikA sometimes.

There are a couple of other kritis of Dikshitar in IshamanOhari - one of which, jagadIsha manOhari, is in the SSP, but I have never heard anyone singing it.

Now Thyagaraja has also composed in it and there are some small (but not significant) differences from the way Dikshitar handles it - so here's manasA Sri rAmachandurni, by T. Chowdiah (took this version for the rarity and also the clarity of the notes).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfScOGF6KfI -- PDN2D - PMG,MR,MGGRSN3 appears in the opening line. Also SNDNP is another non-linear phrase.

A vocal version by MMI is also here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmDBkcADF04 - SRG,RGM-R in the anupallavi brings out shades of bangAla.
Another rendition of the kriti by BMK - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ZppzQ1pM

I suspect this rAgA was much closer to bangAla in the past when bangAla used a N2 (unlike the N3) we see now.

Also, the Walajapet version of Thyagaraja's Sri jAnaki manOhara exists - while the kriti hasn't changed over time -- there is a rare janaranjani-sh DPMR phrase in it (today the tendency is to sing DPMGMR instead). N2,SN3S in the anupallavi (nee jAlini) uses both the nishAdas. SNDNS also exists in this one.

So here it is : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIFa_UfjPo8

At the end of the day, I think this peppy rAgA simply could not grow further because its identity was uncomfortably sandwiched between harikAmbhOji, kEdAragauLa, narAyaNagauLa, bangAla, janaranjani and pUrnachandrika and only the use of both N2 and the occasional N3 and the compositions in it (still intact as they were composed) have allowed it to stand out and avoid becoming forgotten -- talk about a tight squeeze. Having said that, both narAyaNagauLa and bangAla have met with a similar fate.

Alternative spelling : eeshamanOhari.

[SrinathK]

This is the Dhannamal school's version of Sri gananAtham, sung by none other than our @RaviSri : https://archive.org/details/SriGananath ... iDikshitar

The use of the (PM)-G,MR prayogam (similar to the PMR prayogam of the Walajapet School) is notable in the pallavi - so its clear it had that janaranjani-sh prayogam in the past. Also they directly sing N,DPM, for chitta parAshakti yutam using the plain N2, something which is in the SSP text as well (which gives this rAgA an indirect PNDP phrase also), but generally now-a-days everyone prefers to go linear and sing PDN,DPM, instead. A special thanks again to @RaviSri for preserving the old ways.

On a side note, just how well Brinda Mukta preserved the songs as they learnt them can be seen if you would compare it to the notations in books like the SSP - you could almost literally read it off the text. The only difference being the level of gamaka which is on a whole other category to anything in any book (of which Subburama Dikshitar's own composition in kalyANi "kanteemateem" is an example). More on that when I get to K.

[HarishankarK]

There are many ways to spell this raga

[RSR]

Tried google with search phrase as 'isha manohari raga'
Got quite a few links , that may be of interest to learners and students. All of them, about
Sreegananadham Bhajare - Eesha Manohari, Eka Talam, Deekshitar
and a pdf as first item. (SHIVKUMAR.ORG)

[SrinathK]

There is mystery in IshamanOhari and a possible link to harikAmbhOji which has clearly messed with my head and kept me thinking ever since I heard Dikshitar's "ananta bAlakrshnam mAmava mukunda Sri harE".

Which is this - http://www.sangeethamshare.org/tvg/UPLO ... agam_24x7/

Seriously, how is the base tune of this song virtually identical to Thyagaraja's dinamaNi vamsha? In this version, you can't really hear the 2 Ns or the non-linear phrases that distinguish IshamanOhari apart from harikAmbhOji, and I don't think it really uses the N3 anywhere.

I mean, with some modernization, the harikAmbhOji presence is not even subtle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1coYQfBMOFc

And for comparison, this is dinamaNi vamsha - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lojMs6ZQryo - just more madhyamakAla sangatis, and an extra part in the charaNam - otherwise the base is the same.

Perhaps it's just me or it might be because people aren't rendering this kriti in a very IshamanOhari-sh way anymore, and it appears that this IshamanOhari isn't quite its usual self either, the way this kriti is composed.

But now my imagination is now in overdrive and fancies the idea whether harikAmbhOji (which by the way, once existed as a paNN in ancient tamizh music before vanishing away, leaving kAmbhOji in its place to evolve greatly over the centuries) secretly existed as IshamanOhari for a long time before Thyagaraja revived it back to life.

Someone solve this chicken and egg question for me as to which of the two kritis came first.

[SrinathK]

Curiously, the rAgA of ananta bAlakrshnam is mentioned as IshamunIhari in the text which in a footnote has been clarified to be an old name of IshamanOhari. But what if that wasn't exactly the case? Hmm... more questions than answers.