Devagandharam and Abheri

coolkapali · Post by **coolkapali** » 04 Sep 2008, 15:08

Can somebody clarify what exactly is the difference between the two ragas? I find it very similar.

ram · Post by **ram** » 04 Sep 2008, 15:59

Simple response without stirring up a hornet's nest is AbhEri uses D1 (smaller dhaivatam) while dEvagAndhAram uses D2

coolkapali · Post by **coolkapali** » 04 Sep 2008, 16:30

Thats interesting. But I guess the real impact can be known known only when somebody sings to differentiate the Bhava. Please post any available raga rendition for devagandharam. That will be useful.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 04 Sep 2008, 19:50

This has been discussed before.

In general
1. abheri as it is sung today (nagumomu galanEni as sung today, plenty of other songs) is pretty much the same as karnatakadevagandhari of dIkshitar school, whose old name is devagandhara(m) - the krithi for that is panchAshaTpITarUpiNi. The differences between the two are unclear to me - just that this "new" abhEri has significantly overshadowed karnatakadevagandhari.
2 The "old" abheri comes in two flavors - both use the lower shuddhadhaivatam making it a janya of naTabhairavi
2a. One flavor has the same swara structure as today's abheri i.e. sgmpns/sndpmgrs, except for the other dha. Nagumomu was originally composed in this old abheri only, and musicians use to sing it as such as late as the first half of 20th century. The krithi kandA vandaruL by papanasam sivan is composed in this flavor and is always sung in this flavor.
2b. The other flavor is the abheri of dikshitar school and the krithi vINAbhEri is always sung in this flavor. The important difference is absence of ni in arohana and thus p-s. This forbids p-n-s combo. The raga is also vakra in purvanga.

This has been discussed (in length) in another thread: http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5747

Sanjay has also discussed it in his blog at:
http://sanjaysub.blogspot.com/2008/07/p ... i-etc.html
http://sanjaysub.blogspot.com/2008/07/l ... bheri.html

These may (dis)cover more inconsistencies in the above info - e.g. old names also included devagandhari, and devagandharam had kiravani mela in some texts

!

Arun

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 04 Sep 2008, 23:46

I have never had the opportunity to hear an alapana of the "old" Abheri until recently when T.M.K sang it at the IIT ClassFest and I must say I was bowled over. It sounded like a more melancholic Charukesi and I wish other artistes would attempt the same - regardless of what they want to name the raga.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 05 Sep 2008, 10:57

Charukeshi takes a different Gandharam though....interestingly TMK's Nagumomu in one of the Charsur releases is the D2 version!

coolkapali · Post by **coolkapali** » 05 Sep 2008, 12:23

Thanks for the response. am waiting to hear the raga rendered sometime soon.

kmrasika · Post by **kmrasika** » 08 Sep 2008, 18:02

I have to admit, I still can't distinguish the two. There is an endearing annamayya sangkIrtana, "paluku tEnela talli pavvaLiMcenu" which seems to have suggestions of dEvagAndhAram as well.