gaurivELAvaLi - Dikshitar

[SrinathK]

gaurivELAvALi is the 23rd rAgAnga rAga of the asampUrNa school. And unlike gaurimanOhari, this phrase base rAgA is complicated. It makes a good case for why you can't really consider the sampUrNa and asampUrNa systems as equivalents of each other even though we use that word in practice.

And as always, the Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradarshini is the source material for these ragas. The source material includes a geetam, a tAna, Dikshitar's kriti kaumAri gauri velAvaLi and a notated raga by Subbarama Dikshitar.

The mUrchana of the rAgA is unusual. Note, old school ragas don't strictly follow ArOhaNam avarOhaNam like they do now. They have mUrchanas, a set of possible ascending and descending phrases . But it's often not reflective of the actual phrases used in practice (many mUrchanas I have seen refer to archaic versions of rAgAs), but in this case it is, so I am including it :

Aro : S R2 G2 G2 S R M M P D D S
Avaro : S N3 D2 P M1 G2 G2 R2 S -- and this isn't remotely exhaustive.

According to Subbarama Dikshitar, the phrase S R G G S (with some gamaka between the R and G and orikkai janTA on GG - as in G(GRG)S is a vishEsha (special phrase).

I'll first start with Dikshitar's kriti in this rAgA. kaumAri gauri vElAvali. The opening line starts like this (At this point I should probably just upload a screenshot of the SSP page, but never mind) :

R, M, R, G, | R, S, | R, MP || P, D N,N, D | PM G, | RMRG GR S - Pallavi

So RMR, RGRS, RMP, PDND, RMRG, MRGRS and GRS are phrases, along with the RGGS special phrase.

In the Anupallavi, PMPDS, SRRGGR are found - so PDS is the main ascending phrase. Then SNSDNPM also comes (probably a case of dhATTu gamaka). GRS and RGGS are both possible.

There is a chittaswaram, and unlike the kriti, it uses lots of janTa phrases. A RPMGR is seen. RSNDSR is seen. SNDP is possible in the descent.

All in all this is a heavy phrase based vakra rAgA, with lots of janTas, though it can work in single notes as well.

In the tAnA, DPS and PDPS are seen. SGR, SGGR SMGR, SSPP, SPMMGGRS, SNDPMPDS, MDPD, SDP - are seen. Overall, the rAgA has been pretty much the same and it looks like the choice of some phrases is left to the composer.

Subbarama Dikshitar in his notated Raga phrases gives a rare SDP-GRS (something similar to Shankarabharanam or phrases like DNS-DP in gaurimanohari). SRMRGGRS and SRMGRS and of course SRGGS.

The geetam has phrases like NDSR, DPS, RSp, SDP and DSND. So multiple possibilities. A proper feudal age raga.

It is also a proper 3 octave raga that is not range limited.

So if this is all too much for you and you are unable to remember anything else, at least remember RMR, RMPDS, PDND but not PDNS, and SRGGS!

So let's hear the only kriti in gaurivELAvaLi, kaumAri gaurivELAvALi of MD :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72_wh_wlBiE -- by Dr. M Balamuralikrishna

I shared this as a bonus in the gaurimanOhari thread. Dr. M Balamuralikrishna has sung the kriti in gaurivELAvaLI as per the SSP, but the manodharmam is all in gaurimanOhari. - something that happens when old and new can't reconcile their differences. There are many such renditions where MBK, often described as a maverick musician, actually turns out to be secretly the traditionalist! Now who would have imagined that.

However, in this recording MBK has skipped the chittaswaram, which had a lot of essential phrases, so you don't get to quite appreciate the phrases of gaurivELAvaLi which would be clearer if you heard the swaras behind the phrases.

So, for a complete baroque version as per the exact SSP notated gamakas, I shall wait for Dr. Aravindhan (he's the brains behind these raga posts, really.)

[rajeshnat]

Srinath
Some of your raga posts are dense like ghanta. Some like gowrimanohari with extraordinary links we need bit more time to hear the links

I am asking you to give 1 to 2 day spacing please. You type in your notepad and save but publish it to rasikas with right spacing bit later. Dont tell us you can bookmark and read later pragmatically it does not work as we may forget all the buried threads.

You are doing awesome job . These ragas are rich in content. There used to be one young guy srinivasaraghavan who wrote beautifully , he used to write a lovely story of atleast 30 posts with two.characters shreya and hari. That short story with raga names.and contest was spectacular. One fine day he deleted most of his posts till srkris put a feature of deleting posts.I am.not sure if you know that srinivasaraghavan as you may have joined bit later . You and srinivasraghavan are weaving great stories . Spacing please

[SrinathK]

Your wish is granted. Gurjari will be a few days away. After a long time, this lockdown gave me some free days to write, so I couldn't resist milking it to the hilt. I felt that gaurimanOhari and gaurivELAvaLi should be presented together to compare and contrast. Also I can do many edits only here as I have to fit such big topics within the 10000 (now 15000) character limit. I can't tell where I need to trim if I did it in notepad, but in future I'll follow your idea.

As for ghaNTA, I have not yet discussed the recordings of the compositions and their different versions. I will do that, a couple at a time, as I really have to point out the differences. So that's the next goal.

[SrinathK]

Any idea if srinivasaraghavan's stories are still here anywhere?

[rajeshnat]

Any idea if srinivasaraghavan's stories are still here anywhere?

WE did not implement the feature of edit lock within 3 hours or so, he deleted all the posts that he so wonderfuly contibuted and it is gone. After sangeetham.com purposeful purge(equivalent to burning of library) one or two purposeful purge happened in rasikas.org and we lost srinivasraghavan and that lovely stories , the hero was hari and the heroin is shreya