Anandabhairavi


Anandabhairavi or Ananda Bhairavi is a very old melodious rāgam of Carnatic music and Yakshagana music. This rāgam also used in Indian traditional and regional musics. Ānandam means happiness and the rāgam brings a happy mood to the listener.
It is a janya rāgam of the 20th Melakarta rāgam Natabhairavi, although some suggest that it is janya of 22nd melakarta Kharaharapriya.

Structure and Lakshana

Its structure is as follows :
It is a sampoorna rāgam – rāgam having all 7 swarams, but it is not a melakarta rāgam, as it has vakra prayogam and uses anya swaram in comparison with its parent rāgam. The anya swaram is the usage of shuddha dhaivatham in some phrases of the rāgam.
Anandabhairavi ragam is also a bhashanga rāgam, since it uses more than one anya swaram. Anya swaram of a rāgam is the swaram which does not belong to the arohana or avarohana of its melakarta, but it is sung in prayogams.

Swara phrases

The three anya swarams of

Popular Compositions

Anandabhairavi is one of the favourite ragams of Syama Sastri. He is said to have made this a popular rāgam and also to have given the present form for this rāgam. More or less Anandabhairavi's synonym is "Marivere gati" by Syama Sastri. In "Mariverae" and in "O jagadhamba" Syama Sastri uses the anya swara "ga".A very life changing incident is said to have happened in Thyagaraja's life. Once he is said to have attended a Kuchipudi bhagavata artists dance-drama recital,a ballad between mythological characters Radha and Krishna, and he is said to have highly praised their performance, especially a particular song Mathura Nagarilo, which was again set in Ananda Bhairavi.Thyagaraja wanting to acknowledge them offered to give them a gift, of anything that they may desire, that he could possibly give. After much thought they demanded him the Ragam Ananda Bhairavi itself as a gift,so that when someone in the near future spoke of Thyagaraja or Ananda Bhairavi's legacy they would also remember the Kuchipudi dancers too.

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