Mayamalavagowla, is a raga of Carnatic Music. It is classified as 15th melakarta raga under Venkatamakhin's melakarta system. Originally known as malavagowla, "maya" was prefixed to it after the advent of the scheme of the 72 melas. The number 15 was assigned to it following the Katapayadi sankhya system. This is a morning raga.
Structure and Lakshana
defines its lakshana thus: पूर्णो माळवगोळाख्यः स ग्रहो गीयते सदा Mayamalavagowla is the 3rd raga in the 3rd chakra, Agni. Its mnemonic name is Agni-Go. Its mnemonic phrase is sa ra gu ma pa dha nu. Its structure is as follows :
Arohana|:
Avarohana|:
The notes in this raga are shuddha rishabham, antara gandharam, shuddha madhyamam, shuddha dhaivatam and kakali nishadam. As it is a melakarta rāgam, by definition it is a sampurna rāgam. It is the shuddha madhyamam equivalent of Kamavardhini, which is the 51st in the melakarta scale. The gamakas in the raga are unique in that conversely to the G-M relationship in Sankarabharanam, G is sung in oscillation while M is held constant. There is no bold M-P gamaka as in Sankarabharanam as well. R and D are also usually sung in oscillation with S and P respectively, making the only constant notes S, M, and P. Of course, these rules are occasionally broken for effect.
Nature of Raga
This auspicious raga evokes śāntarasa and pathos. It creates a soothing effect. Suitable to sing at all times, particularly, the first prātaḥ-sandhyā-kālaṃ. It is commonly used for beginners lessons such as Sarali Varisais or Sarala Svarās, etc. Since it eschews vivadiswaras, has a uniform distance between svara sthānas and has symmetry, they are easier to learn. It is an ancient rāgam and has been around for a long time. It is a Sampurna raga. Also, it is a sarva svara gamaka vārika rakti rāga. It has a large number of janya ragas assigned to it. This rāgam corresponds to Bhairav in Hindustani music. It is also defined as a mūrcana kāraka méLa since it can be used for Graha bhedam on madhyamam and rishabham to result in Simhendramadhyamam and Rasikapriya respectively. Graha bhedam is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the Shruti to another note in the rāgam. For further details and an illustration refer Graha bhedam on Māyamālavagowla.
''Janya'' ragams
Mayamalavagowla has quite a few janya ragams associated with it, of which Bowli, Jaganmohini, Gowla, Gowlipantu, Janaranjini, Lalita, Nadanamakriya, Revagupti, Saveri and Malahari are quite well known. SeeList ofjanya Ragas for a full list ofjanyas.
Popular compositions
All the basic swaraexercises are set to the Mayamalavagowla raga. These are learnt by beginners in Carnatic Music. It is commonly used in the basics, credited to Purandara Dasa's work in his time, when he did much work towards standardizing the teaching of Carnatic Music into a fully graded system. Lambodara lakumikara by Purandaradasa is generally used for this raga. The first mini-songs that are taught after the completion of basic exercises, are set to Malahari, a janya of Mayamalavagowla. Muthuswami Dikshitar's famous kritis, on Goddess Nilothpalamba has for one of them. Some of the popular compositions in Mayamalavagowla are, Deva Deva composed by Swathi Thirunal and Adikkondar by Muthu Thandavar. A list of popular compositions in Mayamalalavagowla is as follows
This raga has also been very popularly used in film music. Numerous well recognized songs have been set in this raga. Ilayaraja has composed many hit songs in this raga.
