Purvi Kalyani — Ragapedia 21

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 ragam Purvi Kalyani, a gamaka rich, bhava rich ragam that also goes by the name Gamakakriya.

Purvi Kalyani belongs to the 53rd melakartha of Gamanashrama and this is a situation where the parent raga isn’t as famous as its janyam. Phrases such as PDPS and GMDS are unique to this ragam and can be used as an identifier phrase too.

Aarohanam – S R1 G3 M2 P D2 P S

Avarohanam – S N3 D2 P M2 G3 R1 S

Carnatic Compositions

Almost every well known composer has written a composition in Purvi Kalyani. Here is a sampling of compositions by various composers in this ragam.

• Muthuswamy Dikshitar – Kasi Visalakshi, Meenakshi Memudham
• Thyagaraja – Gnana Mosagaradha popularised by Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Paraloga Sadhaname
• Sonti Venkatasubbayya – Ninne Kori (ata thala varnam)
• Syama Sastri – Ninnuvina Gamari
• Walajapet Venkataramana Bhagavathar – Vadarasane Sri
• Swati Thirunal – Deva Deva Jagadheeswara
• Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar – Parama Pavana Rama
• Pattabiramayya – Nee Matale Mayanura (Javali)
• Mysore Sadasiva Rao – Gangadhara Triputa
• Badrachala Ramadasar — O Rama Nee Namam
• Oothukadu Venkata Subbaiyer – Padmavathi Ramanam
• Ambujam Krishna – Iniyaagilum Ninai Maname
• Gopalakrishna Bharathi – Satre Vilagi Irum, Karanam Kettu Vadi (some reference this song to Suddhananda Bharathi)
• Thanjavur Sankara Iyer – Sri Raja Rajeshwari
• Thiruvarur Ramasami Pillai – Ekkalathilum Unai
• Neelakanta Sivan – Anandha Natam Aaduvar
• Aandal Thiruppavai, Koodarai Vellum (sung on the day of making Sakkara pongal) is set in this ragam
• Swarna Venkatesa Dikshitar – Dharumam Idhuthano
• Arunagirinathar Thiruppugazh Marukkulaviya is sung in this ragam
• Indha Paramugam popularised by Madurai Mani Iyer, but there is some conflict as to who the composer is – Sankardas Swami, Mayuram Vedanayakam Pillai or Kavimani Desiga Vinayakam Pillai.

Gamakakriya

Gamakakriya is the name given to this ragam in the Dikshitar school. It is said that Gamakakriya has more prayogas than Purvi Kalyani, including the use of PDS (we use only PDPS in the latter) – so Purvi Kalyani could be the evolved version of an older Gamakakriya.

Meenakshi Memudham Dehi, one of the songs Muthuswamy Dikshitar composed in this ragam, refers to “dasa gamakakriya”, which is the raga mudra and also signifies that all the 10 gamakas (dasa vidha gamakas) exist in this ragam. Some also say the phrase refers to Goddess Meenakshi as the creator of the gamakas in music.

Meenakshi Memudham Dehi is also said to have been the last composition of the great composer and he made his disciples sing it to him in his death bed just before he passed away.

To read more on the ragam Gamakakriya, check out this article.

Listen to…

Listen to “Dharumam Idhuthano”, a rare composition in the ragam Purvi Kalyani of Dr. VV Swarna Venkatesa Dikshitar – this song was sung as a part of the 99th birth anniversary celebrations of the composer on Facebook live by yours truly.

Use in movies

In the movie Jil Jung Juk, the Mexican stand off style sequence is accompanied by the background score of the javali “Nee Matale Mayanura” in the ragam Purvi Kalyani, which is a pleasantly surprising choice of music by Vishal Chandrasekar.

Another song in this ragam, starting in the higher notes and sung by TM Soundararajan is “Nadha Mayamana Iraiva” from the movie Mridanga Chakravarthy.

Amudhe Tamizhe

The song, Amudhe Tamizhe from the movie Kovil Pura is a classic example of one song being attributed to multiple ragams.

Malayamarutham – remember how the song starts SRGS… SRGPGRS, which has the notes of Malayamarutham. However, as the song progresses, we don’t find the use of GPDNS, just GPDS when Malayamarutham involves N too.

Rasika Ranjani – a new ragam which is said to be Malayamarutham minus the nishadham, with no specific carnatic composition in the ragam; however this film song also uses N in certain odd places.

Purvi Kalyani – this song doesn’t really use the madhyamam and goes GPDS,NDP GPDPGRS in the characteristic phrase “Tamizhe Naalum Nee Paadu”, so this cannot be called Purvi Kalyani, though I might have claimed so earlier.

This is why we can’t get real serious about equating a song with a ragam – whatever said and done, Amudhe Tamizhe is an orchestrated composition made for a movie, a beautiful composition at that.