Bhupalam


Bhupalam is a rāgam in Carnatic music. It is a pentatonic scale. It is a janya rāgam, as it does not have all the seven swaras. It is also written as Bhoopalam.
It is considered an auspicious scale and a morning rāgam. In Tamil music, this scale is called Puranirmai pann and some thevarams are set to this scale. This rāgam is played in the night. It is also used for chanting slokas, folks songs, Kathakali music and other rituals. The equivalent scale in Hindustani music is Bhupal Todi.

Structure and Lakshana

Bhupalam is a symmetric rāgam that does not contain madhyamam or nishādham. It is a symmetric pentatonic scale. Its ascending and descending scale is as follows:
The notes used in this scale are shadjam, shuddha rishabham, sadharna gandharam, panchamam and shuddha dhaivatham, as per Carnatic music notation and terms for the swaras. Bhupalam is considered a janya rāgam of Subhapnathuvarali, the 45th Melakarta rāgam, though it can be derived from 5 other melakarta rāgams by dropping both the madhyamam and nishādham.

Popular Compositions

Bhupalam rāgam lends itself for good elaboration and has a few compositions in both classical music and film music. Here are some popular songs composed in Bhupalam.

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Related rāgams

This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam.

''Graha bhedham''

Bhupalam's notes when shifted using Graha bhedham, yields two pentatonic rāgams, Gambhiranata and Hamsanadam. Graha bhedham is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the shadjam to the next note in the rāgam. We get Hamsanadam by shifting the Shadjam to Shuddha Rishabham. For more details and illustrations of this concept refer Graha bhedham on Gambhiranata.

Scale similarities