Recorded at Darbar Festival 2007, on 15th April, at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester.

Musicians:
- Jyotsna Srikanth (violin)
- Neyveli Venkatesh (mridangam)
- RN Prakash (ghatam and khanjira)

Raag Bahudari, Ragam tanam pallavi, Composition by Saint Thyagaraja (1767-1847)

What makes this ragam tanam pallavi so special is the way its pulse builds up from the alapana to the tanam, leading to the pallavi. Dr. Jyotsna Srikanth’s passionate detailing of Bahudari is impeccable. She has a penchant for approaching every raga from a fresh perspective, lending a sparkling newness to the raga and drawing out its core emotions.

The second reason that makes this piece unmissable is the stunning taniavarthanam that follows the pallavi. Neyveli Venkatesh takes this section to a new high with his innovative insertion of ‘konnakolam’ or recitation of rhythmic syllables. He whips up a storm with crystal clear rendering of the ‘bols’ eventually involving the entire team into a sawal-jawab' (question-and-answer) session.

RN Prakash is at his versatile best, multitasking and churning it out through his ghatam and khanjira. The exceptional alignment in tuning of the mridangam with the ghatam makes this section a treat to the ears.

In this concert held in 2007, Dr. Srikanth was presented alongside Venkatesh as part of Darbar’s efforts to position a UK-based musician alongside an India-based musician. Though this was not a cross-over in terms of music, the results were nothing short of astounding with the ensembles exploring newer and

more creative avenues within the realm of the same genre. This is purely evident in this presentation of Bahudari by the musicians.

Bahudari is a derived scale (janya ragam), as it does not have all the seven swaras (musical notes), derived from the 28th Melakarta raga Harikambhoji. It is an asymmetric scale that does not contain rishabha. It is called a shadava-audava ragam in Carnatic music classification (as it has 6 notes in ascending and 5 notes in descending scale). Its arohana-avarohana structure is as follows :

S G₃ M₁ P D₂ N₂ S

S N₂ P M₁ G₃ S

This scale uses the notes shadja, antara gandhara, shuddha madhyama, panchama, chathusruthi dhaivatha and kaisiki nisadha.