Kanakangi

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Kanakangi (pronounced Kanakāngi, Sanskrit: कनकांगि,Kannada - ಕನಕಾಂಗಿ Telugu: కనకాంగి, Tamil: கனகாங்கி, English: The Golden Bodied One) is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 1st Melakarta rāgam in the 72 melakarta rāgam system of Carnatic music. It is called Kanakāmbari in the Muthuswami Dikshitar school.[1][2]

Contents

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1 Structure and Lakshana

2 Janya rāgams

3 Popular Compositions

4 Related rāgams

5 References

[edit] Structure and Lakshana

Kanakangi scale with shadjam at C

It is 1st rāgam in the 1st chakra Indu. The mnemonic name is Indu-Pa. The mnemonic phrase is sa ra ga ma pa dha na [1]. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure (ascending and descending scale) has all shuddha swaras, as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms):

ārohaṇa: S R1 G1 M1 P D1 N1

avarohaṇa: S N1 D1 P M1 G1 R1

(the notes are shuddha rishabham, shuddha gandharam, shuddha madhyamam, shuddha dhaivatham, shuddha nishadham)

It is a sampoorna rāgam - a rāgam that has all seven swaras (notes). It is the shuddha madhyamam equivalent of Salagam, which is the 37th melakarta.

[edit] Janya rāgams

Kanakangi has a few janya ragams associated with it, of which Karnātaka shuddha sāveri and Lavangi (a recent addition to Carnatic music by Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna) are a little popular. See List of janya rāgams for a full list of Kanakangi’s janyas.

[edit] Popular Compositions

Sri Gananatham Bhajamyaham is one of the few compositions in this austere ragam, by Thyagaraja, one of the most important composers in the history of Indian music. Another important composition is that of Muthuswamy Dikshitar - “kanakAmbari kAruNyAmRtalahari” in the rāgam “KanakAmbari”, which is the equivalent of the rāgam Kanakangi, as per the asampoorna melakartha tradition that he followed . Also, Koteeswara Iyer has composed a krithi in this raaga ,he having composed in every melakartha raaga.

The popular Tamil movie Sindhu Bhairavi has a song Moham ennum, in this ragam.

[edit] Related rāgams

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

Kanakangi’s notes when shifted using Graha bedham, yields Kamavardani. Graha bedham is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the shadjam to the next note in the rāgam. For further details and an illustration refer Graha bedham on Kanakangi.

[edit] References

^ a b Ragas in Carnatic music by Dr. S. Bhagyalekshmy, Pub. 1990, CBH Publications

^ Raganidhi by P. Subba Rao, Pub. 1964, The Music Academy of Madras