garuDadhwani is a scalar rAgA under the 29th mEla shankarAbharaNam that fused shankarAbharaNam and mOhanam together like this :
Aro : S R2 G3 M1 P D2 N3 S
Avaro : S D2 P G3 R2 S
And it sounds a bit like mOhanam and nothing at all like shankarAbharaNam. This is a very interesting quirk because shankarAbharaNam does use phrases like DNS-DP and GM-DP - (G)R,S but still sounds totally different. The other "fusion" rAgam that is like this is mOhana kalyANi.
Anyone expecting this to be a heavy rAgA will find to their surprise that garuDadhwani is probably one of the lightest, plain note scales you'd ever see - it is a completely scalar rAgA that is a creation of Thyagaraja. In fact it is so light, it can perfectly go into a western folk number or orchestral piece and never look out of place.
If anything, the plainer you play it, the better and more distinctive it sounds! At the most you will add a single kampita on the R2 and D2. And if you go faster, it's all plain. garuDadhwani is like that 1.5 year old highly energetic infant that's all too happy not wearing anything and running all around the place. Or another point of view, it reminds of a ladder and slide which we used to play on till we got too old. You quickly scramble up the stairs, and then slide down. And sometimes we would use the slide to go up and scramble down.
The highlight gamaka is that you can slide lazily down on the descent from S-D-P-G-R-S as though you are literally yawning and it will sound good. Seriously. I am not joking - it's a good comedy piece for conveying hAsya rasa. This rAgA is totally laid back, a favourite of instrumentalists and given it's plain nature, can be used for fast supersonic sprints and lots of rhythmic exercises.
One thing is clear from this, there are indeed two approaches to ragas - the scalar and the organic. The factory and the hand crafted, the template and the bespoke.
But it has been composed in a lot more than you think - we will start with a varnam by Lalgudi G Jayaraman in it :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_wmL3e4e40 - by LGJ himself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-zkonl0J7s - And would you believe we have a notated video?
And the weird thing is that Thyagaraja has chosen THIS of all scales to set a deeply philosophical kriti like tatvameruga taramA to tune :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v86ij5VhreU - KVN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmj5tN5lt-M - And it has been extensively elaborated by T K Rangachari
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDTdn8krkIk - Oh yes, MMI. One can find out all that this rAgam can do from those kalpanAswaras.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-qSWJ9IS6I - Maharajapuram Santhanam
There is another song of his - Ananda sAgara : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD53_c4Bq2A - S Rajam
Another kriti of GarbhapurivAsar - Emi nEramu - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNuQmQuUFU - by LGJ
Mysore Vasudevacharya has also had a fling with it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7x-tQZ-iZU - RKS
I heard that in his earlier days, this rAgA used to be sung by GNB, but alas, we have no recordings today.
I was think HMB would have loved this, and it turns out he has quite a few numbers in it, but recordings are a little hard to come by (note to self next time I attend Archana & Arathi) :
chanDa munDa shiras chEtri - http://www.sangeethamshare.org/tvg/UPLO ... is-Part-9/
And as it turns out, BMK has composed a tillAnA in it : http://www.sangeethamshare.org/sreeniva ... imes_2008/ - Somehow I thought this rAgam would have fit him and his mischief the best.
So how do I conclude? Well, for those who were waiting for garuDa darshanam, hoping for some sign from Vaikuntham, it turns out that garuDadhwani is actually an American Bald Eagle!
