Mohanam ragam – songs from Sruti concerts

Duration: 2 hours

1) Malladi Brothers and Gundecha Brothers: Slokam (6:40) (2011)

2) Neyveli Santhanagopalan: Ninnu kori (5:20) (1999)

3) Maharajapuram Santhanam: Raktha Ganapatim (12:40) (1989) (Refer below for more information about the song)

4) Neela Ramagopal: Jagadiswari Krupai (21:30) (2021)

5) Lalgudi Siblings: Maravakudaya (7:50) (2024)

6) Balamuralikrishna: Nannu palimpa (18:00) (1990)

7) Rama Ravi: Kandu kandu (6:45) (2002)

8) Lalgudi Jayaraman: Mohana Rama (16:10) (1993)

9) VVS Murari and Vittal Ramamurthy (Violin Viola duet): RTP (21:40) (2018)

10) Malladi Brothers: Ade Choodare (4:32) (2013)

Tidbits about mOhanam ragam

mOhanam ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is as follows:

ārohaṇa : S R₂ G₃ P D₂ Ṡ

avarohaṇa : Ṡ D₂ P G₃ R₂ S

Interesting tidbits about mOhanam: “Ancient name of Mohanam is “rEgupti” or “raghupati”. Historically speaking, mOhanam is perhaps the oldest rAgam known to mankind. Dr. S. Ramanathan’s doctoral dissertation on the music in shilappadikAram mentions that it is one of the most ancient paNNs. This pentatonic scale is, therefore, found in the music of various nations, including primitive tribes. Ancient chinese, japanese, hungarian, swedish, and gypsy music all have traces of Mohanam.This raga claims to possess an international melody. This raga is widely used in many countries namely Burma, Thailand, Japan, China. The national Anthem of Thailand is set in raga Mohanam.” (Source: https://anuradhamahesh_mohanam )

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“rakta gaNapatim bhajEham” song

This song, “rakta gaNapatim bhajEham” by Maharajapuram Santanam is a composition on gaNapati by Muthuswami Dikshitar. Here Dikshitar describes gaNapati as ‘rakta gaNapati’, meaning gaNapati having a blood-red color. He further goes on to say in the anu-pallavi that He is wearing clothes of blood red color too (“rakta+ambara-dharam).

As most of you may know, Dikshitar composed several songs on gaNapati – 30 according to quick research on YouTube, ChatGPT and Gemini, although the number seems to vary depending on the source! This YouTube playlist has 21 renditions.

Often, such compositions of Dikshitar are based on a deity in a particular temple or place. For example, the popular kriti, “vAtApi gaNapatim bhajEham”, refers to the gaNESa deity from vAtApi – apparently present day Badami in Karnataka state of India. (Interesting historical information here is that this idol was apparently brought from Vatapi and installed in Tiruchenkattankudi in Tamil Nadu state in India in the 7th century, after the Pallava king Narasimhavarman defeated the Chalukya king of Vatapi.)

Similarly, there is a set of 16 songs on gaNESa that Dikshitar composed. These are based on the 16 forms of gaNESa in the tyAgarAja temple in Tiruvarur, the birthplace of Dikshitar.

Returning to the rakta-gaNapatim-bhajEham song, there does not seem to be a clear answer as to a place associated with it. However, there are “internal” references to this song that suggest that this gaNapati refers to a deity in some temple in Kerala.

The references are the phrases “parasurAma kshEtra prabhAvam” and “pAyasAnna hOma” found in the caraNam. The first phrase suggests Kerala because there seems to be a relationship or association of parasurAma and Kerala. According to mythology, Kerala was formed by the carving it out of the sea by parasurAma, when he wielded his axe from Kanyakumari to Gokarnam!

The second phrase means a hOma (ritual offering) made with rice and sweetened milk (pAyasa), which apparently is a popular practice in Kerala.

Unfortunately, it seems not possible to narrow the place down any further based on these references, because there seem to be multiple temples of parasurAma in Kerala, for example Thiruvallam near Thiruvanathapuram, Manjoor, near Mandipulam and Thrissur.