Bilahari


Bilahari is a rāgam in Carnatic music. It is basically a raga of Bengal. It is a janya rāgam from the 29th melakarta scale Sankarabharanam. It is a janya scale, as it does not have all the seven swaras in the ascending scale. It is a combination of the pentatonic scale Mohanam and the sampurna raga scale Sankarabharanam. It is a morning rāgam.

Structure and Lakshana

Bilahari is an asymmetric rāgam that does not contain madhyamam or nishādham in the ascending scale. It is an audava-sampurna rāgam. Its structure is as follows:
The notes used in this scale are shadjam, chathusruthi rishabham, antara gandhara, panchamam and chathusruthi dhaivatham in ascending scale, with kakali nishadham and shuddha madhyamam included in descending scale. For the details of the notations and terms, see swaras in Carnatic music.
This rāgam also uses kakali nishadham as an external note in the descending scale. Hence it is considered a bhashanga rāgam, a scale with notes external to the parent scale.

Popular Compositions

There are many compositions set to Bilahari rāgam. Here are some MASSIVELY popular kritis composed in Bilahari.

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Related rāgams

This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam.

Scale similarities

Desakshi is a raga which is similar to Bilahari. The arohana remains the same, while the sampoorna avarohana has Kaishiki Nishada in place of Kakali Nishada.