Swaying Sahana....

The dictionary meaning of 'Sahana' says - powerful, strong, patient, enduring etc.
A friend of mine send an mp3 for the song - 'Indha Veenaikku Theriyaadu' from the Tamil serial 'Rail Snegam', earlier today. Listening to it I was moved (as Sahana does to me always) by the slow mellifluous tunes of the raga, and I traversed on to a blissful state of finding joy out of sadness or pain. As conradictory as that sounds, I have to say that is where Sahana precisely leaves me - happy to be dwelling in the mellow state of nostalgia that the raga pushes me into, satisfied yet exhausted at the end of it!! I remember reading 'pulling the heart strings...' somewhere and what this raga does to you could be aptly summed up by that phrase...

And so I ventured out into the wide open to look for details. Though I cannot possibly vouch to the information I have compiled here, here's some interesting literature on the raga. These are mostly stuff I collected from the net from different sources and added a few thoughts myself. I am thankful to KT for sending this mp3 over which prompted me to go dig this up!!

Name and Origin - 'Sahana' derives from the word 'shah-na'. It is believed that this must have been a raga invented in the north (much after the mughal invasion) and hence must belong to the Hindustani family! Sahana must have gone through immense evolution and hence 'lost' all its 'hindustani' traces as it exists in the Carnatic system today.
Sahana is believed to be first mentioned as a derivative of the Kambhoji mela by Paidala Gurumurthy Sastri. The use of the raga mudra technique by Dikshitar leads to the possibility of the name of this raga having been Shana.

Sahana is a recent inclusion in terms of carnatic music history. It is believed to have become popular just prior to the time of the Cranatic Trinity. Sahana is described as a Ranjakatva Ubhaya Vakra raga. This broadly means that the raga could be classified as 'asthetic' or 'pleasing' etc.

Arohana and Avarohana:

Arohanam Sa1 Ri2 Ga3 Ma1 Pa Ma1 Dha2 Ni2 Sa2
Avarohanam Sa2 Ni2 Dha2 Pa Ma1 Ga3 Ma1 Ri2 Ga3 Ri2 Sa1

This raga has vakra prayogams on both the arohanam and avarohanam. Vakram is something that deviates away from the normal trends or patterns that a raga traces along the octave. The Gandharam in this raga is specially named as Trisanku Gandharam, which is neither sadharana gandaram nor anthara gandaram. It is somewere in between those two. Sahana is considered a janya/derivative of either the 28th melakartha Harikamboji, or the 22nd melakartha Kharaharapriya, with a known exception credited to the Trisanku Gandharam. This raga is purported to be better learnt through listening and appreciation rather than pure academic knowledge.

The Sadharana Gandhara is used sparingly - as 'alpathvam' (not freely/frequently used).Most of the songs use the Antara Gandhara while few use the Sadharana Gandhara. This raga is a believed to be a bit restrictive, in the sense that the patterns followed during alapana, gamakas, and swaraprastaram are limited - this prayogam is called Mithathavam. ( Ref. Bahuthvam, Mithathvam, Alpathvam). Rishabham & Nishadham act as jeeva swarams and are used with gamakams while rendering and it is mostly the pivot of many songs in this raga.

Chaya Swaram: Ri Ni
Nyasa Swaram: Ri Ni Dha Pa
Dheerga Swaram: Dha Ma
Gamaka Swaram: Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni (even within these, generally Ga is often used without the gamaka to create a pathos)

Sahana being a ranjakatva(pleasing to the ears) raga is generally rendered in a very slow pace.The importance of bhava is exemplified by a slow pace and this requires that the singer is appropriately experienced and can bring out the essense of the raga in order to rock the listeners emotions. Generally Sahana is not taken up for elaboration (as a Main piece) in concerts. It is (appropriately) used as one of the thukkadas sung towards the end. This raga sounds really good rendered on instruments like Veena ,flute and violin....


Karuna Rasa pradhanam:
“Chittam Iranga denaiyaa sendil velaiyaa nin.....
Bhaktark kirangum dheena bandu enrunnai nambi...” These lines quite literally beg for karunai, sympathy from the Almighty!!

In “vandanamu raghunandana aa
sEtu bandhana bhakta chandana” Sahana raga in beautiful slow movement with elegant simplicity brings devotion.
Aesthetic Sahana with the jeeva swaras and the right gamakas mainly elicit devotion and karunai!

Some Carnatic Compositions:
Songs like Vandhanamu, Giripai,Ee Vasudha by Thyagaraja;
Sri Kamalambikayam, Abhayambayam - by Muthuswami Dikshitar;
More recently Papanasam Sivan has composed Sri Vathapi Gananapathiye that serves as a notable number to start the concert with. Another popular P.Sivan song is 'Chittam Irangathathenaiyya', often rendered by Sanjay Subramaniam over the last 2-3 years.


Some songs from the tinsel town -

'Swapnangal' from the movie 'Kavyamela' composed by Dakshinamoorthy. It is a ragamaalika with the pallavi and the anupallavi set to Sahana and the rest to Shanmukhapriya!

'Parthen Sirithen' from Veera Abhimanyu

'Then Kizhakku cheemayila' from Kizakku cheemaila

'Anbe Sugama' from Parthale Paravasam

'Kannamoochi' from Kandukonden Kandukonden is mainly set to Natta Kurinji. But the song has just a trace of sahana in one of the lines...'Un idazh Kondu vai mooda vaa en Kanna... the brief alapanai after this line is set to Sahana.