Raga Dhanasree - carnatic or hindustani?

[tmohan]

This is a HM rAga a derivative of " kAphi " of HM. There seems to be one with d1, derivative of "asAveri" of HM
( naTha bhairavi equivalent). This is different from pUrva dhanashrI.

This is one of the rAgAs of the cofusing quartet

AbhEri
KarNATaka devagAndhAri
bhImplas (HM)
dhanashrI(HM)

Regards
Mohan

ps: By equivalent, I am just referring to the scales only.

[vijay]

In addiiton to Sri Mohan's excellent explanation, I might add that Puriya Dhanasree is completely different and similar to Carnatic Pantuvarali. That leads us to another confusing quartet, details of which are provided here:

http://sawf.org/newedit/edit03182002/musicarts.asp

[SrinathK]

I am not able to find the source now, but dhanashree is an old rAgA of the kAfi thAT of HM and the more popular bhImplAsi itself traces its antecedents back to it (yes, dhanashree is actually the older one).

There are actually 2 versions of dhanashree - one of kAfi thAT (the one that we use in CM, and the subject of this thread). The other one is of the bilAwal thAT and uses G3 and N3)

If you could put an Arohanam avarohanam for it today, it would be like

Aro : S G2 M1 P N2 S
Avaro : S N2 (D2) P M1 G2 R2 S - with the D2 being skippable for the most part. The R2 is also skippable in certain phrases. But the rAgA is more vakra and only "piece-wise linear" (to borrow it from math ).

Looking at Swati Tirunal's tillAnA (set to tune by Semmangudi and Lalgudi Jayaraman - the tune on the last jati part is entirely by LGJ), the rAgA is a proper old school one, with lots of vakra phrases like NSP, PNMPS, PSNS, NPG, etc... It uses a plain G2 or a simple slide into the G2, and you could land and stay on it. For the most part, it is actually closer to shuddha dhanyAsi and could get away with impersonating it here and there -- were it not for the occasional SNDP and the R2.

The R2 is less skippable, but does happen in phrases like GSS-MGG-PMM-NPP (G, R S S) or NS,GS,GMP (the last part). bhimplAs would be a more linear version of this rAgA, so basically the two are allotropes of the same scale (as is karnaTaka dEvagAndhAri / modern AbhEri).

There is actually enough uniqueness in this rAgA for a seasoned ear to differentiate it from its cousins.

The tillAnA of Swati Tirunal was made famous by MS Amma, so it is only fitting : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT0sOXNGjkg
LGJ himself has played this tillAnA with NR in the 1970-71 tour with a few more variations.

It was also an MLV special. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PPCeIILyjE

[CRama]

There is a Hindi bhajan of Swati Tirunal in Dhanasree- Seesaganga. Here is a link to the song by Prof G. Seethalakshmi, disciple of Semmangudi and Parassala Ponnammal.
http://www.swathithirunal.in/htmlfile/323.htm

[SrinathK]

Beautiful bhajan. Sounds so much like shuddha dhanyAsi in this one, even the R2 just rarely appears out in the open. When the R2 and D2 do appear, it sounds like bheemplAsi (well it is the ancestor of bheemplAsi).

The tillAnA though has a distinct and brilliant way of bringing out the identity of dhanashree.