Shri ragam is an ancient ragam in the Carnatic tradition. It is also written as Sri or Sreerag.[1] This scale does not have all the seven swaras (musical notes) in the ascending scale.[1]Shree is the asampurna melakartha equivalent of Kharaharapriya, the 22nd Melakarta rāgam.[1][2] It is the last of the 5 Ghana rāgams of Carnatic music.[1] It is a popular rāgam that is considered to be highly auspicious.[2]
Notably, Carnatic Shree takes the lower madhyamam being the asampurna scale equivalent of Kharaharapriya. It is not related to the Hindustani raga, Shree.
Structure and Lakshana
Ascending scale is same as Madhyamavati scale, shown here with shadjam at CNotes in descending scale is that of Kharaharapriya scale, shown here with shadjam at C
Shree is an asymmetric rāgam that does not contain gāndhāram or dhaivatam in the ascending scale. It is a audava-vakra-sampurna rāgam (or owdava, meaning pentatonic in ascending scale),[1] where vakra indicates the zig-zag nature of jumping notes in descending scale. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure (ascending and descending scale) is as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms):
Nama kumusumamula, Yuktamu gAdu by Tyagaraja in Telugu
Sri Varalakshmi, Sri Muladhara Chakra Vinayaka , Sri Kamalambike, Sri Abhayamba, SriVishvanatham Bhaje, Tyagaraja Mahadhvajaaroha and Kameshvarena Samrakshitoham by Muthuswami Dikshitar in Sanskrit
This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam.
Scale similarities
Madhyamavati is a rāgam which has a symmetric ascending and descending scale, which matches the ascending scale of Shree. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R2 M1 P N2 S : S N2 P M1 R2 S
Manirangu is a rāgam which has gāndhāram in the descending scale, while all other notes in both the ascending and descending scale are same as Madhyamavati. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R2 M1 P N2 S : S N2 P M1 G2 R2 S
