Sushma Bhat, founder of Musicnamaste, had the the divine opportunity to learn and present a beautiful and challenging Raagamalika as part of an ensemble presentation Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple, Dallas. A wonderful and diverse team learning and experience culminated into a beautiful grand performance July 4th 2023!
They presented an elaborate Raagamalika set in 5 different raagas – Kanakangi, Jhankaradhwani, Kantamani, Gayakapriya and Mohana, that also incorporates 12 melakarta raaga names in it, and expounds the qualities of the most revered guru Pujya Shree Ganapathi Sacchidananda Swamiji. This is tuned by the amazing Malladi Brothers. They sang this on the occasion of Guru Poornima in Karya Siddhi Hanuman temple, in front of Pujya Shree Ganapathi Sacchidananda Swamiji.
Here is an infographic showing the Ragamalika structure, highlighting how the various Ragas are mentioned in the ragas. The ragamalika composition names 12 unique melakarta ragas that also adds to the meaning of the song. Of the names mentioned a subset is being used to the render the stanzas as ragamalika. Also, another unique aspect is that the first raga of each chakra is utilized as a compostion element. This unique raaga malika is composed by Bala Swamiji of Dattapeetham, Mysore.
The complete link including two more bhajans that we sang in addition to the raagamalika is present here.
