AmrÃÂ¥tavará¹£iá¹Âi is a rÃÂgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music), created in the early nineteenth century by Muthuswami Dikshitar. It is an audava rÃÂgam (meaning pentatonic scale) in which only five of the seven swaras (musical notes) are used. It is a janya rÃÂgam (derived scale), fairly popular in Carnatic music. There is a belief that AmrÃÂ¥tavará¹£iá¹Âi causes rain ( The name of the rÃÂgam is derived from the Sanskrit words Amrita: meaning Nectar and Varshini: meaning one who causes a shower or rain, and hence the association with rain ), and that the Carnatic composer Muthuswami Dikshitar brought rain at Ettayapuram, Tamil Nadu, India by singing his composition, Aanandaamrutakarshini amrutavarshini.
AmrÃÂ¥tavará¹£iá¹Âi is a rÃÂgam that does not contain rishabham and dhaivatam. It is a symmetric pentatonic scale (audava-audava ragam in Carnatic music classification). Its ' structure (ascending and descending scale) is as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms):
The notes used in this scale are shadjam, antara gandharam, prati madhyamam, panchamam and kakali nishÃÂdam)
AmrÃÂ¥tavará¹£iá¹Âi is considered a janya rÃÂgam of Chitrambari, the 66th Melakarta rÃÂgam, although it can be derived from other melakarta rÃÂgams, such as Kalyani, Gamanashrama or Vishwambari, by dropping both rishabham and dhaivatam. There is another scale that has the same name but is less practiced in current performances. This scale is associated with the 39th melakarta Jhalavarali.
AmrÃÂ¥tavará¹£iá¹Âi rÃÂgam lends itself for extensive elaboration and exploration due to the symmetric and pentatonic scale. It has many compositions in both classical music and film music. Here are some popular kritis and film music composed in AmrÃÂ¥tavará¹£iá¹Âi. The most popular composition in Amritavarshini Ragam is Anandamrithakarshini by Muthuswami Dikshitar
In addition to these, Anni Mantramuli Inde Avahinchenu of Annamacharya has been set to music in the AmrÃÂ¥tavará¹£iá¹Âi.
Amritavarshini's notes when shifted using Graha bhedam, yields 1 popular pentatonic rÃÂgam, Karnataka Shuddha Saveri. Graha bhedam is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the shadjam to the next note in the rÃÂgam. For more details and illustration of this concept refer Graha bhedam on AmrÃÂ¥tavará¹£iá¹Âi.
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