Darbari Kanada — Ragapedia 8

Ragapedia is a series of posts I am writing, one Carnatic Raga per post, on my understanding of the ragam, carnatic compositions in that ragam and how it has been dealt within films. This post is about the raga Darbari Kanada, a ragam that one can loosely think as a Hindustani version of Kanada.

Darbari Kanada, a janya of the 20th melakartha of Natabhairavi, does not have a defined scale.

Aarohanam — S R2 G2 S M1 P D1 N2 S

Avarohanam — S D1 N2 P M1 P G2 R2 S

According to Wikipedia, the raga was taken from the Carnatic world to Hindustani by Tansen (its called Darbari after the court of Akbar). Whereas, we call it a Hindustani raga. My hunch is the North India got influenced by our Kanada and created Durbari and then we brought back Durbari to Carnatic and named it Darbari Kanada.

Carnatic Compositions

No composer from the Trinity has composed in this ragam as far as I know. Few standalone carnatic compositions are known, while the ragam is more used as a part of ragamalikas or viruthams.

• Govardhana Giridhari by Narayana Theerthar
• Varuvai varuvai varuvai kanna by Bharathiyar has been sung in this ragam
• Chandra chooda siva shankara by Purandara Dasar is also sung in this ragam

Listen to…

Listen to Sri Devanathan’s rendition of the Purandara Dasar composition, “chandra chooda siva shankara parvathi” in Darbari Kanada.

Use in Movies

I haven’t learnt any Kriti in Darbari Kanada and it is only through movie songs do I identify this raga till date. Either it is attractive enough as is, or because it isn’t possible to meddle with – whichever reason be, I have found all the movie songs set in this raga unadulterated so far.

A few years ago, me and my dad were having a discussion about how every few years there is at least one hit movie song in the ragam Darbari Kanada. And we were wondering what is so special about this raga that makes it a music director’s favourite. That is how I came up with this playlist of 12 movie songs in the raga, from then to now… including “Sivashankari” from the movie Jagadhala Pradhaban, “Chinnanjiriya vannaparavai” from Kungumam, “Kalyana thenila” from Mounam Sammadham, “Aagaya vennilave” from Agni Nakshatram, “Katre en vasal” from Rhythm, up until “Naane varugiren” from the movie OK Kanmani.

I might have omitted certain film songs that lean more towards pure Kanada but have shades of Darbari Kanada as well.