In the treatises on Indian classical music, ragas are classified as masculine and feminine — raga and ragini. This concept is more common in the Hindustani system. It applies to Carnatic music too but remains on paper rather than being practised. While listening to Carnatic ragas, I have this tendency to classify them as Raga and Ragini. It is based on my perception and experience and heightens listening pleasure.
For instance, I think of Kalyani, Ranjani, Amritavarshini, Khamas, Anandabhairavi, Lalitha and so on as feminine while Bhairavi, Todi, Sankarabharanam, Durbar, Atana, etc., would be masculine. Constant engagement with the ragas on these lines led to an experience, surreal, which I wish to describe.
Rhythmic movement
It was a full moon day and I was sitting on the sands of the beach, awaiting the moon to rise. The sea was unusually calm for a day like that and it was not yet time. Meanwhile I listened to the rhythmic movement of the waves — forward and backward, rising and falling. Presently, I started forming swara patterns to align with the waves and they kept coming back. Soon the grid became clear — Saa RiGa Saa, Riga MaGaSaa, RiGaMaDaMaGaSaa... — chittaiswaram of ‘Sada Saranga Nayane’ in Ranjani.
With just a few moments left for the moon to rise, my mind was pre-occupied with the lilting melody of the chittaiswaram, in the crystal clear voice of M.S. Subbulakshmi. Just then the moon rose like a golden disc and I felt an inexplicable joy. Looking at the effulgence of the moon, the anupallavi of the song — ‘Sudhakara Kalasekhara Kaumudi Militha Mandahase’ — just poured out. The song, in praise of Parvati, Lord Siva’s consort, likens the smile of Parvati to the merging of moon and moonlight. Her smile is as charming and lustrous as the communion of Sudhakara — the moon — and Kalasekhara — the crescent worn by Siva in the locks of his hair.
Even while marvelling at the beauty of the rising moon, I surrendered to the imagination of the composer, who visualised the smile of the Goddess in the resplendent full moon.
As darkness spread and the moon started playing hide and seek with the clouds, I set off for home, thinking how fortunate I was to relate such beautiful compositions to the grandeur of Nature. Was it the lyric or was it the moving voice, or the full moon to which beautiful women are compared — I had decided that Ranjani was a Ragini!
I have enjoyed many ragas this way. It is after all the heart of the connoisseur that explores the beauty of music and interprets it.
