Tanarupi

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Carnatic Music

Concepts

Sruti • Swara • Raga • Tala • Melakarta • Asampurna Melakarta

Compositions

Varnam • Kriti • Geetham • Swarajati • Ragam Thanam Pallavi • Thillana

Instruments

melody: Vocals • Saraswati veena • Venu • Violin • Chitra veena • Nadaswaram • Mandolin

rhythm: Mridangam • Ghatam • Morsing • Kanjira • Thavil

drone: Tambura • Shruti box

Composers

List of Carnatic composers

Tanarupi (pronounced tānarūpi, Sanskrit: तानरूपि, Telugu: తానరూపి, Tamil: தானரூபி, English: The one that embodies tanam) is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 6th melakarta rāgam in the 72 melakarta rāgam system of Carnatic music. It is called Tanukeerti in Muthuswami Dikshitar school of Carnatic music.[1][2]

Contents

[hide]

1 Structure and Lakshana

2 Asampurna Melakarta

3 Janya rāgams

4 Compositions

5 Related rāgams

6 References

[edit] Structure and Lakshana

Tanarupi scale with shadjam at C

It is the 6th rāgam in the 1st chakra Indu. The mnemonic name is Indu-Sha. The mnemonic phrase is sa ra ga ma pa dhu nu.[1] Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure (ascending and descending scale) is as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms):

ārohaṇa: S R1 G1 M1 P D3 N3 S

avarohaṇa: S N3 D3 P M1 G1 R1 S

The notes used in this scale are shuddha rishabham, shuddha gandharam, shuddha madhyamam, shatsruthi dhaivatham and kakali nishadham. As it is a melakarta rāgam, by definition it is a sampoorna rāgam (has all seven notes in ascending and descending scale). It is the shuddha madhyamam equivalent of Raghupriya, which is the 42nd melakarta rāgam.

Asampurna Melakarta

Tanukeerti is the 6th Melakarta in the original list compiled by Venkatamakhin. The notes used in the scale are the same, but the ascending scale and descending scale are different. It is an audava-vakra sampurna raga (5 notes in ascending scale, while full 7 are used in descending scale in a zig-zag manner).[3]

ārohaṇa: S R1 M1 P N3 S'

avarohaṇa: S N3 D3 N3 P M1 G1 R1 S

Janya rāgams

Tanarupi has no janya rāgams (derived scales) associated with it. See List of janya rāgams for a full list of janya rāgams.

Compositions

Here are a few common compositions sung in concerts, set to Tanarupi.

Va velava va by Koteeswara Iyer

Sri Rama sada bajeham by Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna

The following composition is set to Tanukeerti.

Chidambara natarajamurthim by Muthuswami Dikshitar

Related rāgams

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

Tanarupi’s notes when shifted using Graha bedham, yields no other melakarta rāgam. Graha bedham is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the shadjam to the next note in the rāgam.

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

^ Shree Muthuswami Dikshitar Keerthanaigal, by A Sundaram Iyer, Music Book Publishers, Mylapore, Chennai