Kanakangi (pronounced kanakÃÂngi, meaning the golden bodied one) is a ragam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 1st Melakarta rÃÂgam in the 72 melakarta rÃÂgam system of Carnatic music. It is called KanakÃÂmbari in the Muthuswami Dikshitar school.
It is the 1st rÃÂgam in the 1st chakra Indu. The mnemonic name is Indu-Pa. The mnemonic phrase is sa ra ga ma pa dha na. Its ' structure (ascending and descending scale) has all shuddha swaras, as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms):
(the notes are shuddha rishabham, shuddha gandharam, shuddha madhyamam, panchamam, shuddha dhaivatham, shuddha nishadham)
It is a sampurna rÃÂgam â a rÃÂgam that has all seven swaras (notes) and is often dubbed the shuddha scale, owing to its swarasthanas. It is the shuddha madhyamam equivalent of Salagam, which is the 37th melakarta.
KanakÃÂmbari is the 1st Melakarta in the original list compiled by Venkatamakhin. The notes used in the scale are the same, but the ascending scale is different. It is an audava-sampurna raga (5 notes in ascending scale, while full 7 are used in descending scale).
Kanakangi has a few janya ragams associated with it, of which KarnÃÂtaka shuddha sÃÂveri and Lavangi (a recent addition to Carnatic music by Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna) are a little popular.
See List of janya rÃÂgams for a full list of Kanakangi's janyas.
Few compositions have been composed in this austere Ragam of which some are as listed:
kanakAmbari kAruNyAmRtalahari in RÃÂgam KanakAmbari by Muthuswamy Dikshitar
Sri Gananatham Bhajamyaham by Thyagaraja
Kanakangaka Sukha Guha by Koteeswara Iyer - having composed a kriti in every melakarta raga in his magnum opus Kanda Ganamutham
Sreesa Putraya is a composition by Dr. M.Balamuralikrishna, is part of a series of compositions he created in every Melakartha RÃÂgam .
Varnam - Sri Ganeswaram from Janaka Raga Varna Manjari by Nallan Chakravarthy Murthy
Varnam - Gananatham Smarami is a composition by Akkarai Sornalatha
Varnam - Gananatha Nin is a composition by Madurai N Sivaganesh
Ullam Urugi is a composition by Suddhananda Bharathi
This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rÃÂgam.
Kanakangi's notes when shifted using Graha bhedam, yields Kamavardani. Graha bhedam is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the shadjam to the next note in the rÃÂgam.