Sunadavinodini

Sunadavinodini is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an audava rāgam (or owdava rāgam, meaning pentatonic scale). It is a janya rāgam (derived scale), as it does not have all the seven swaras (musical notes). This raga was discovered by Mysore Vasudevachar.

Structure and Lakshana

Sunadavinodini scale with shadjam at C

Sunadavinodini is a symmetric rāgam that does not contain rishabham and panchamam. It is a pentatonic scale (audava-audava ragam ^[1][2] in Carnatic music classification – audava meaning 'of 5'). Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure (ascending and descending scale) is as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms):

• ārohaṇa : S G3 M2 D2 N3 S
• avarohaṇa : S N3 D2 M2 G3 S

(notes used in this scale are antara gandharam, prati madhyamam, chathusruthi dhaivatham, kakali nishadham)

Sunadavinodini is considered a janya rāgam of Kalyani, the 65th Melakarta rāgam, though it can be derived from 2 other melakarta rāgams, Gamanashrama or Kosalam, by dropping both rishabham and panchamam.

Popular compositions

Sunadavinodini rāgam lends itself for elaboration and exploration and has many compositions. Here are some popular kritis composed in Sunadavinodini.

• Devadi deva sree vasudevan by Mysore Vasudevacharya
• Samagana sunadavinodini by G Gururakacharya
• Sanaathani Sri sunaadavinodini by Mrs Kalyani Varadarajan

Effect

This raaga can induce the presence of being under parental care for children and experience their affection

Related rāgams

This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam.

Graha bhedam

Sunadavinodini's notes when shifted using Graha bhedam, yields 2 other pentatonic rāgams, namely, Shivaranjani and Revati. Graha bhedam is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the shadjam to the next note in the rāgam. See Graha bhedam on Shivaranjani for more details and an illustration.

Scale similarities

• Hamsānandi is a popular rāgam which sounds similar to Sunadavinodini and has the shuddha rishabham extra when compared to it. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S R1 G3 M2 D2 N3 S : S N3 D2 M2 G3 R1 S
• Amritavarshini is another popular rāgam which has the panchamam in place of the dhaivatam when compared to Sunadavinodini. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is S G3 M2 P N3 S : S N3 P M2 G3 S

References

1. Raganidhi by P. Subba Rao, Pub. 1964, The Music Academy of Madras
2. Ragas in Carnatic music by Dr. S. Bhagyalekshmy, Pub. 1990, CBH Publications