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Janya raga · parent: 47. Suvarnangi

Vijayashree

Confidence: medium Last verified:

Scale

Derived from the printed scale: shadava in both ascent and descent (6 notes up, 6 down); D are omitted (varjya) in both directions; bhashanga (borrows N2, outside its parent).

Beginner's explanation

Vijayashree is a janya raga : it is derived from the melakarta Suvarnangi (number 47), which means it takes its notes from that parent's scale. It also uses a note from outside the parent (N2), which makes it a Bhashanga raga: that note is an foreign note to the parent scale.

Going up, its notes are S R1 G2 M2 P N2 S'; coming down, S' N2 P M2 G2 R1 S. Its ascent and descent each use 6 different notes (Shadava ). Notes of the parent that it leaves out are Varjya : D in both directions.

If Sa is C on a keyboard, the notes it uses fall on C, D♭, E♭, F♯, G, B♭. This only shows where the notes sit: a raga is more than its notes, and its ornaments and phrases are not shown here.

A bit deeper

Its parent. Vijayashree is placed under Suvarnangi (melakarta 47) by karnatik.com, the source for this page's parent. Of the parent's seven notes it does not use D2 and N3.

A borrowed note. Vijayashree uses N2 although its parent has a different N. In theory this is what makes a raga bhashanga. No single melakarta holds all of its notes, so its parent is the one it is felt to grow from, by convention.

Why start here? How likely you are to meet it

●●● (rating 3 of 3: 1 = met very often)

Rating 3 of 3 (editorial, a rough guide to how often you are likely to meet this raga): it is not among the top 100 ragas in karnatik.com's tally of compositions per raga (based on a list of 38,000 songs), so a beginner will meet it less often. A 1 means met very often and 3 means met rarely. It says nothing about how hard the raga is to sing, which depends on its ornaments and is not rated here. The tally counts songs by raga name and dates from 2011.

Characteristic features

Key notes, characteristic phrases and ornaments are not recorded here yet: they could not be confirmed from two sources, and this site leaves them out rather than guess.

Where the notes sit

The twelve swarasthanas. Where two names share a row, they are the same pitch.
#Semitones above SaShort nameFull name
10SShadja
21R1Shuddha Rishabha
32R2 = G1Chatushruti Rishabha = Shuddha Gandhara
43R3 = G2Shatshruti Rishabha = Sadharana Gandhara
54G3Antara Gandhara
65M1Shuddha Madhyama
76M2Prati Madhyama
87PPanchama
98D1Shuddha Dhaivata
109D2 = N1Chatushruti Dhaivata = Shuddha Nishada
1110D3 = N2Shatshruti Dhaivata = Kaishiki Nishada
1211N3Kakali Nishada

Related ragas

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Notable compositions (titles only)

No compositions by composers covered on this site are listed yet.

How this was checked

  • Sources agree: Scale of Vijayashree: ascent S R1 G2 M2 P N2 S'; descent S' N2 P M2 G2 R1 S. Sources: Royal Carpet: Carnatic Ragas; List of Janya ragas. The ascent and descent printed by karnatik.com match the scale in Wikipedia's table.
  • Sources agree: Vijayashree is a janya of melakarta number 47, Suvarnangi. Sources: Royal Carpet: Carnatic Ragas; Royal Carpet: Introduction to Carnatic Raga (the melakarta ragas). Parent per karnatik.com. The raga borrows N2 from outside the parent, which is what bhashanga means.

References for this page

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