From: srini@engin.umich.edu (Srinivasan Pichumani)
Subject: Re: Gana ragas (was MDR)
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 15:16:15 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

In article <1992Aug19.121325.3211@ducvax.auburn.edu> l_n_@ducvax.auburn.edu (N.Lakshminarayanan,Auburn Univ. AL36849) writes:
>In article <MANI.92Aug18171806@aix.Berkeley.EDU>, mani@aix.Berkeley.EDU (Mani Varadarajan) writes:
>> 
>> Anyway, why do you think Tyagaraja chose these ragas in the
>> first place? Save VarALi, they aren't especially heavy ragas.
>> It would be interesting to surmise as to how these five ragas
>> got elevated to such a high stature.
>> 
>> Mani
>
>	I think the gana ragas have a special place because of a certain 
>austere beauty without the 'indulgence' of say,  a sankarabaranam or kalyani--
>nothing undesirable about that, only the gana ragas seem to be on a higher 
>plane.
>	I particularly think varali and gowla have that austere beauty. 
>However the beauty does not seem to be reflected in the renditions of (the time
>bound form of) compositions if they are not prefaced by a great alapanam--
>specifically, I find the yearly renditions of pancharatnams hardly worth 
>listening to -- incidentally how did that tradition come into being, I wonder? 
>
>Ln

The pancaratna kritis are set in the Ghana rAga pancakam as Lakshminarayanan
mentions. Ghana/Naya/Rakti or MArga/Deshi are traditional classifications of the
different rAgas in vogue; this particular set, nAttai-gaula-Arabhi-varALI-shrI,
is the most popular ghana rAga set, and has been used for long by vaiNikas
to play rAgamAlikA tAnam. It is possible that TyAgarAjA took a cue from this
old tradition and cast his pancaratna kritis in this set of rAgas.
[Of this set, nAttai & varALI have the special distinction of being rAgas 
with vivAdi prayogams, from the days of antiquity. shrI rAgam is also one
of those hoary, ancient rAgas which has been traditionally considered
to be a very auspicious rAga.] 

In the early decades of this century, there were a few groups conducting 
separate ArAdhanais at TyAgarAjA's samAdhi in TiruvaiyARu. The two prominent
groups among these were known as the Peria katchi (BIG GROUP) and the
Chinna katchi (SMALL GROUP); the first one featured musicians like the
violinist Malaikottai Govindasvami Pillai (I think Maharajapuram Sr, Semmangudi
Srinivasa Iyer, Musiri etc were part of this group); the second one featured
musicians like Ariyakudi RAmanuja Iyengar and so on.
A lady by name Bangalore NAgaratnammAl had contributed a lot of money and
effort to the building/renovation of the complex around the samAdhi as it
stands today; I think her group also used to conduct an ArAdhanai.

However, around 1942, due to the efforts of connoisseurs like
S.Y.KrishnasvAmi,ICS, these various groups set apart their differences
and came together to conduct the ArAdhanai. 
Unchavrtti (i.e dressing up a person like TyAgarAjA or a "template" 
bhAgavata, and making him go around the streets singing bhajanai,
collecting rice etc) was always a part of the bhAgavata tradition and
that was adopted by these folks; also singing a Pancaratna or two, if not
the entire set, was common to all the groups -- that got regularized
and everybody tried to learn the Pancaratna kritis. Even so, only 
MaharAjapuram VisvanAtha Iyer used to sing the VarALI pancaratnam fully,
apparently.

--Srini
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