Abheri is a raga in Carnatic music. It is a Janya raga, whose Melakarta raga is Kharaharapriya, 22nd in the 72 Melakarta raga system. Bhimplasi of Hindustani music sounds close to Abheri.
Structure and Lakshana
Abheri is an audava-sampoorna raga. Its structure is as follows :
Arohana| :
Avarohana| :
The swaras in this scale are Chathusruthi Rishabham, Sadharana Gandharam, SuddhaMadhyamam, Chathusruthi Dhaivatham and Kaisiki Nishadham. In addition to these swaras, there are gamakas which also form part of Abheri. The ascending scale is same as that of Udayaravichandrika raga, while the descending scale is that of Kharaharapriya raga. There are some differing views on swaras in the scale of Abheri. It is considered a Bhashanga raga, with introduction of Suddha Dhiavatham in some phrases of the raga. A different view is that this raga is a janya of Natabhairavi, with D2 being the anya swara. This raga is closer to Bhagyasree as for Bhagyasree Gandharam is sung softly. Thus a subtle difference of Gandhara makes a listener to feel this raga as Bhagyasree.
Popular compositions
A very popular composition in Abheri raga is Nagumomu Ganaleni, a kriti by Thyagaraja, one of the three eminent composers in Carnatic music. Another well known composition is Bhajare Re Manasa, a kriti written by Mysore VasudevacharGokula-nilaya krupalaya is also composed by Mysore Vasudevacharya in the same raga. Ancient Tamil Sangam period poetry, Veral Veli by Kapilar was set to Abheri raga in Sandham- Symphony Meets Classical Tamil by Composer Rajan. Muthuswami Dikshitar has composed Vinabheri in this raga. However, the of Muthuswami Dikshitar might be quite different from what is considered Abheri today. There are many thukadas composed in this raga of which Vellai Thamarai penned by Subramanya Bharathi is noteworthy. This raga has been extensively used in movie songs/ movie music. The most popular movie song in this raga is Aakaasa veedhilo from the old Telugu classic movie Malliswari sung by Ghantasala and Bhanumati.
An excellent rendition of this Raaga can be found in one of L. Shankar Albums Raga Aberi. He received a Grammy Nomination for this composition.
Related rāgams
This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam. Abheri's notes when shifted using Graha bhedam, yields 3 other janya rāgams, namely, Mohanakalyani, Kedaragaula and Arabhi. Graha bhedam is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the Shadjam to the next note in the rāgam. In case of Janya ragams, only notes that occur in both ascending and descending scale are taken for this change. For further details and an illustration of Graha bhedam refer Graha bhedam on Sankarabharanam. Aberi also called as Karnatakadevakanthari and Bimplasi.
