Sahana (raga)


Sahana is a popular rāgam in Carnatic music. It is a janya rāgam associated with the 28th Melakarta rāgam Harikambhoji.
The Hindustani music ragam Sahana is an upper-tetrachord-dominant Kanada-anga raga, from the Kafi thaat, also allied with Bageshree and Bhimpalasi. The shuddha Dhaivat is an important rest note.

Structure and Lakshana

It is a Ubhaya Vakra sampoorna ragam. Vakra means crooked. Ubhaya Vakra means that the notes in both ascent and descent follow a zig zag pattern. The notes in ascending and descending scale do not follow a strict progression. Hence the note phrases contain such vakra phrases, lending a unique beauty to this rāgam. Though it is a sampoorna rāgam, the vakra scale means it is not considered a melakarta, as melakarta rāgams must have strictly ascending and descending scales. It is also classified as a rakti raga.
Its structure is as follows :
The notes used in this scale are Shadjam, Chathusruthi Rishabham, Antara Gandharam, Suddha Madhyamam, Panchamam, Chathusruthi Dhaivatham and Kaisiki Nishadham.
Its characteristic phrases are,,,. Sahana has a distinct mood due to these phrases and characteristic gamakams and is rarely confused with other ragams.
Sahana has a close relationship to Malavi and to some extent Dwijawanthi/Jujavanti. While the use of Anthara Gaandharam in R2 G2 R2 makes it different from Dwijawanthi, since Dwijawanthi uses Saadharana Gaandharam, sahana has a closer relationship with Malavi which has an identical Vakra scale formation as Sahana.

Select compositions

There are a large number of popular songs composed in this rāgam in Carnatic Music as well as Tamil Film Music. Here are some Carnatic music compositions.

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