The Almighty can be easily accessed through music. All animals from a cow to a cobra are attracted by music. It is believed that even the growth of plants is accelerated by exposure to music.
Music helps eliminate misery and bring in happiness. Carnatic music can easily be rated to do this best. Look at the number of ways we play the Carnatic music. All Ragas have emanated out of the seven swaras, each of them representing one form of AMBAL. She appears in different forms in every raga. She dances in absolute ecstacy when we sing songs in various ragas, keeping the SWARASUDHAM.
Knowing that every raga is representing some form of the AMBAL, we should follow the swara flow of each and every raga and sing properly to get a proper understanding of the raga. If a mistake is made in singing it will automatically reflect in the music flow and ring a bell even to those who are not experts in music. This holds irrespective of whether the singer is performing a well known raga or not. Hence all singers can sing in any unknown ragas without any inhibitions. Just like we get used to and familiar with so many new things by constant and frequest use, a singer can get familiar with a raga by repeated singing and then it becomes simple and easy.
We are able to easily remember poems and stories by singing them to a tune. Similarly a composition sung in a raga is essential to retain the raga in our memory. If we pick up a song and sing a few times we will be able to easily follow the raga .
I have classified the ragas used in the JANYA RAGA KRITHIMALA into three sections.
So far no one has composed songs in the ragas Rukmambari and Sallabham out of the second section.
In the third section I have composed a song in SUKAPRIYA, a janyam of Ramapriya with just four swaras. I have created a new raga called Sukapavani by an asymmetric combination of the swaras of the raga Pavani and composed a song in that raga.
When Sri Kalyanaraman came to know that I was composing songs in all mela ragas, he suggested that by substituting Panchama with Prathimadhyama we could get another 36 ragas and he further suggested that I could compose songs in those ragas too. Accordingly I worked on Kanakangi, Mayamalavagowla, Suryakantham, Sankarabharanam and Rasikapriya. I had no difficulty with Mayamalavagowla and Suryakantham since both are being sung regularly in Hindusthani in the name of Lalith. But I was not satisfied with the Prathimadhyama raga songs in Kanakangi, Rasikapriya and Sankarabharanam. I informed this to Sri Kalyanaraman.
He clarified that that I need not worry since there were in principle no differences between these and other ragas and explained how to handle these ragas. He proved what he said by giving a proper shape to these songs and also sang a song in Subashree, a janyam of Kanakangi in an appealing and detailed way with a lot of Kalpanaswaras in the Doordharshan.
By this Sri Kalyanaraman not only helped me but has done a great service to the world of Carnatic music.
When Vidwan Sri T R Subramaniam saw me composing Thiruvilayadal Puranam songs, he suggested that it would be very useful to compose songs on the lives of the Carnatic music trinity. He further said that Mysore Vasudevachariar has done this in Sanskrit but no one has attempted it in Tamil.
As per his advise I composed a song on the life of Saint Thyagaraja tuned to a Navaragamalika containing nine heavy ragas and set to Misrachapu thala. Similarly I composed a song on Sri Muthuswamy Dikshidhar tuned to an Ashtaragamalika,containing eight favorite ragas of Dikshidhar and set to Thisranadai. I also composed a song on Sri Shyamala Sastri in Saptharagamalika in Kanda nadai. I have further done some innovations in these seven mela ragas. All the ragas in this ragamalika are not well known ragas.
Janya Raga Krithimela has songs on the deities in a number of well known pilgrim centers, on a number of saints , a few songs suitable for dance and a few philosophical songs. Songs have been so tuned that right from beginners to exponents, every musician will have a choice of songs that they can easily sing.