Ragam Revathi and Raag Bairagi

I was listening to Raag Bairagi, by Flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. Raag Bairagi in Hindustani Music (HM)  is loosely connected to Ragam Revathi in the Carnatic Music (CM)  Style.

Let me give some technical information about the Ragam here.  In both HM and CM sytles, the Aarohanam/ Avarohanam ( ascending/ descending framework notes) are the same.  S r m P n S' - S' n P m r S

In CM, Revathi is considered a Janya Ragam of the 2nd Melakartha Ragam Ratnangi. In HM, Bairagi is considered " Bhairav Thaat ka raag", ie, thought of having been born from Bhairav Raag ( equivalent Ragam in CM is Sindhu Bhairavi). Bairagi is considered a morning Raag ( usually sung between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.). In CM , there is no formal timezones for ragams, but generally, some ragams like Bhowli, Bhoopalam etc are considered morning ragams.

The similarities between Revathi and Bairagi probably end here. The differences are fairly stark, just as well. In CM, ragams like Revathi, Sindhu Bhairavi etc are sung usually towards the end of a long concert, and very rarely as centre pieces. That is the tradition. Whereas, it is very common to hear a centre piece in Bairagi, Bairagi-Bhairav or Bhairav in HM, in line with the time of the day of the concert ( usually).

Now, why in CM is Revathi sung towards the end? It is very simple. Revathi, Sindhu Bhairavi etc give a calming effect to the mind, after some very intense music earlier on. The mind is made to calm down, and give up any roused emotions, when one listens to these ragams. If you are in doubt, try listening to Sindhu Bhairavi or Revathi, just before you go to sleep. And you will realize how calming the ragam can be, to the mind.

Now, I do not know who named the ragam as Revathi. However, I was contemplating the origin of Bairagi.  And a totally unconnected story from the Srimad Bhagavatham came to my mind. I have picked up this part of the story, as-is, from the Internet.

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This story appears at the very beginning of Bhagavata and is an apt introduction to the theme of the epic,which is bhakti or devotion.

In the story Bhakti, Jnana and Vairagya are shown in the human form for the purpose of an intelligent dialogue with the sage Narada. Bhakti, Jnana and Vairagya may be translated as Devotion,Knowledge and Dispassion respectively. Dispassion is that quality in a human being by which he would view all things(other than the vital) without passion.‘Bhakti’ starts her journey (along with her sons ‘Jnana’ and ‘Vairagya’) down south from the Dravidian land as a young lady, passes through Karnataka and Maharashtra and by the time they reach Gujarat,they become too weak and feeble even to walk. However, the moment ‘Bhakti’ sets her foot on the soil of Brindavan(which is the abode of bhakti),she regains her youth and energy. ‘Jnana’ and ‘Vairagya’,though, remain in the same state of unconsciousness. They continue to remain very old totally sapped of all energy. ‘Bhakti’ starts crying inconsolably at the plight of her children who are looking older than herself.
Sage Narada happens to pass by, sees the wailing young lady and wants to know the cause of her misery. ‘Bhakti’ tells that she is grieving for her two sons who are virtually unable to even move because of very ripe old age, even as she(‘Bhakti’)is enjoying youth. She asks Narada as to what needs to be done to revive her two sons who seem to be in a coma.
Narada,then,explains to ‘Bhakti’ the cause of the malady as follows:
‘O,young lady,listen attentively and understand the cause behind your plight. In the present age of ‘Kali'(kaliyuga)the qualities – jnana, bhakti and vairagya – all have vanished. This is because the Lord Krishna has departed to ‘Vaikunta’ at the end of his ‘avatar’ in the previous yuga(Dwaparayuga). He has, however, sent you(‘Bhakti’) to come down to earth and enter the minds of all true devotees or seekers of Krishna. He has sent you with ‘Moksha'(or Total Liberation) as the maid-servant and ‘Jnana’ and ‘Vairagya’ as sons’.
Having thus elaborated the circumstances in which the three(Jnana,Bhakti and Vairagya)are caught,Narada,then, waxes eloquent on the causes for the downfall of the qualities jnana, bhakti and vairagya during Kaliyuga.
He says as Brahmanas chant stories of the Lord indiscriminately to everyone just for the sake of gaining wealth, the story loses its spiritual worth(‘Katha saarasthato gatah’). Likewise when non-believers also go to holy places, the value of the sacred place is gone(‘Tirtha saarasthato gatah’). ‘Tapas’ and meditation lose their significance too when austerities are undertaken by wicked men with agitated minds pursuing unlimited desires,(‘Tapah saarathato gatah; Dhyanayoga phalam gatam’). To the humanity with such tendencies,only bhakti can be cultivated and this alone can be the saviour.
Narada,then, offers to help revive the sons of Bhakti – ‘Jnana’ and ‘Vairagya’. He chants vedas, upanishads and bhagavadgita into the ears of Jnana and Vairagya in order to revive their youth. However,it has only a marginal effect on them(They get up just once and then get back to the same state of unconsciousness). Now Narada is quite confused. How else is he going to manage to revive the two sons of Bhakti?
He dashes off to Badrikasram on the Himalayas and seeks counsel of great sages Sanaka and his 3 brothers. What, then, follows is a lengthy discourse on the glories of Bhagavata purana by the Rishi, which I will summarize below:
The sages Sanaka and his 3 brothers explain as to why vedas and upanishads alone have not given the desired result to revive ‘Jnana’ and ‘Vairagya'(the sons of Bhakti). Vedas and upanishads teach jnana(knowledge)alone to the complete exclusion of bhakti(devotion). That was acceptable and excellently suited the temperament of humanity who lived during the previous three ‘yugas’ namely ‘Krita’,’Treta’ and ‘Dwapara’ yugas. The present ‘Kali yuga dharma’ demands more of bhakti and much less of jnana and vairagya.
At this stage,Narada raises an important question: If vedas and upanishads are the source of Bhagavata epic, how come the latter is considered superior?
The sage Sanaka gives a beautiful explanation to the above query.
He says: Bhagavata conveys the essence of jnana contained in vedas and upanishads ,while at the same time chanting the sweet names of the lord through devotion filled stories. Bhagavata is the purana which blends all 3 – bhakti,jnana and vairagya(dispassion) – in the right proportions ideal for the kali yuga. It is superior to upanishads and vedas because it is the essence of the latter. Just as a juice in a fruit separated from a tree tastes much sweeter than the same juice in the root of the tree(‘Samprithakbhutah phale vishva manoharah phalakritih’),and butter extracted out of milk is more delicious than milk itself and extracted sugar cane juice is sweeter than the sugar cane itself – Bhagavata extracted out of vedas and upanishads and presented as the story of Lord Hari is much more potent and delicious than its very source.The sources(vedas and upanishads) have only jnana and vairagya component whereas Bhagavata is a rich blend of all three(in the right proportion needed for the kaliyuga) and therefore superior to Vedas and upanishads.

Having got enlightened thus by the sages Sanaka and his 3 brothers, Narada advises Bhakti to listen to the story of Bhagavata along with ‘Jnana’ and ‘Vairagya’. Bhakti follows the advice,listens to Bhagavata with great attention and amazingly ‘Jnana’ and ‘Vairagya’ are revived to youthfulness. Thus the misery of ‘Bhakti’ ends.

End of Story.

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Now, what on earth, is the connection between this story and the Ragam/ Raag that I was talking about earlier?

Well, I had explained earlier, that Revathi/ Bairagi helps to calm the mind, and become dispassionate. The name Bairagi is a morph of Vairagya!

Another interesting observation : When you listen to Vedas being recited, you will observe that there are "ups and downs" in the recitation, in terms of tonal variation.  Vedic chantings typically use 4 tones - Udatta उदात्त(middle tone), Anudaatta अनुदात्त (lower tone), Svarita स्वरित (higher tone) and Deergha Svarita दीर्घस्वरित (High tone extended). These are usually marked with intuitive svara marks - an underline for lower tone, a small vertical line above the letter for a higher tone and two vertical lines for Deergha Svarita.

Bairagi is a pentatonic raag ( 5 notes/ tones). If you observe carefully, with the exception of the Madhyamam/ Madhyam , the remaining 4 notes/ tones match exactly one-to-one with the Vedic recitation!! 

No wonder one gets a very calm feeling, when listening to properly recited Vedas!!