Curiosity Killed the Cat!

Being a core Carnatic lover, I try to spread some music around, wherever I go. In the process, I am also learning constantly and now getting a lot of exposure to Hindustani music. I have always thought that Hindustani is very different from Carnatic. Different it is, but the similarities are in abundance which I am discovering slowly. In fact, I am actually falling in love with this form of music too since I am able to relate to it a lot. I happened to listen to one of Bhimsen Joshi’s abhangs a couple of days ago. I caught the raga which was none other than Valaji. What we call Valaji or Valachi in Carnatic is Kalavathi in Hindustani. And with no second thoughts, I started singing the krithi Jalandhara Supeethaste in my mind. I was reminiscent of my childhood when I learnt this song with so much interest and the raga just sat so deep in my mind and heart that from somewhere it just popped up that day. Somehow, this was not enough for me for the day. I started my research on the krithi and the raga. (that’s why the title of this post is..! :))

The krithi – Jalandhara Supeethasthe by Sri Muthaiah Bhagavathar is a very interesting krithi on Devi Parvathi. What does the krithi mean? You can definitely find the meaning in lots of websites. But what does Jalandhara mean? And how is it related to Parvathi? So here is the story:

Jalandhara was a demon king who misused all his boons and powers to capture the world and scared the Devas. He grew very powerful and there was no one to fight against him and defeat him in Satyaloka and Vaikuntha. So he went to Kailasa to fight against the powerful Lord Shiva. Mrs.Parvathi’s husband Mr.Lord Shiva was annoyed with Jalandhara’s over confidence. Lord Shiva took the form of an old man and tricked Jalandhara by asking him to lift a chakra (which is the famous sudarshana chakra) above his head and test his strength. Jalandhara tried this and with great difficulty got the chakra on his head and the chakra cut his head and his body into pieces! So this is why the krithi starts with one of the achievements of Lord Shiva, and continues in Parvathi’s praise in the rest of the krithi!

Coming back to Valaji.

Valaji is a simple pentatonic (audava) raga with Sa Ga Pa Dha Ni swaras. When you go on singing the raga, it somehow leads to Shri Ranjini and Abhogi. I was shocked and doubted my swara kalpana. However, if you read the article in http://www.carnatica.net/special/raganubhava-saj-report.htm you definitely get the similarity – between 3 ragas actually: Valaji, Abhogi, and Shri Ranjini.

I finally concluded the following:

1. The relation between Valaji and Abhogi, being that, the grahabheda from Ma to Ma in Abhogi lead to Valaji.
2. The relation between Abhogi and Shri Ranjini being that, they are janya ragas of 22 melakarta, Kharaharapriya. While Abhogi is considered as Kumara (male) raga, Shri Ranjini is considered as Sthri (female) raga. These two ragas combine to form the Ardhanaareeshwara raga – Jayamanohari!

I was convinced in the end that my analysis was not so wrong. Afterall, Valaji is somewhere related to Abhogi and Shri Ranjini.

Isn’t music amazing? The science of music is complex, powerful, and deep. The more you discover its strength, the more you want to learn. Anyways, that’s my feeling. Hope you feel the same too!