To whom it may concern, As a student of carnatic music, I enjoy identifying ragas when listening to songs. However, I was wondering if you could let me know what the small differences are between Simendramadyamam and Shanmughapriya, as they are so similar,and often difficult to identify. Thank you

-- Supraja Sridharan (supraja16@hotmail.com), June 23, 2003

Answers

Under the mELA scheme by which parent ragas are classified, Shanmukhapriya is mELA # 56 with the following notes for arohana and avarohana: S R2 G2 M2 P D1 N2 S - S N2 D1 P M2 G2 R2 S and Simhendramadhyam is mELA # 57 and uses S R2 G2 M2 P D1 N3 S - S N3 D1 P M2 G2 R2 S as its scale. So the difference is the niSAdA between the two ragas.

-- Lakshman (luzchurch@hotmail.com), June 23, 2003.