Mohanam has five notes, S R G P D S. It is an easier raga to grasp than Mayamalavagaula, and arguably more appealing, particularly for children. It can have a light and bright air about it, and since all the notes are sharp, the notes more evenly spaced etc, it’s easier to sing.

Seetha Rajan has produced a cd, Bodhana, with swara (note) exercises in Mohanam. I have enjoyed singing along with it. Vidya says her daughter enjoys Bodhana too. Even if not learning music formally, this could be a fun cd for children (and adults).

Apart form swara exercises there are small songs (geetams), bhajans, namavalis etc There are also some exercises in other Ragas.

The first two tracks from Bodhana are below:
1. Swara Exercises in Mohanam:

2. A short and sweet geetam (song) Vara Veena in Mohanam:

The rest can be heard in clips below:

Bodhana is available here, here and here

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Take for example the aarohana and avarohana of the Ragam Mohanam:
S R G P D S
S D P G R S

Mohanam has five notes, i.e. is an audav-jati ragam and takes the higher varieties of R, G and D

The notes in the Ragam Shivaranjani are the same as Mohanam. The only difference is that Shivaranjani uses sadharana gandharam instead of antara gandharam, i.e. a lower flatter variety of G than Mohanam.

The Aarohana and Avarohana of Shivaranjani is as follows (I have used Hindustani notation to keep things simple at this stage as Carnatic notation can get confusing):

S R g P D S
S D P g R S

The clips above are from ragasurabhi. When you listen to them, pay particular attention to the way the note G, i.e. the Gandharam is intoned. It’s the same note, but is treated differently in each example.

The two Ragams “feel” and sound quite different. Shivaranjani has an altogether more sombre feel than Mohanam.

The video below is of ML Vasanthakumari singing Dayarani Dayarani, a composition in the Ragam Mohanam:

The video below is of ML Vasanthakumari singing Yamanelli Kananendu Helabeda in Shivaranjani:

The feel of a Raga is not learned by learning the aarohana and avarohana. That is learned through practices like learning many compositions in the ragam, learning its characteristic phrases and swara patterns, which notes to stress and where, where to ornament the notes etc and through lots of listening and practice and immersion with a Guru.

Updated to add: Thanks to Madhav who pointed to these lecture demonstrations on “allied” Ragas, i.e. Ragas with similar notes on raagabox.

Related Posts:

• What is a Raga (3)- Aaroh/Avroh or Aarohana and Avarohana (Ascending and Descending Note Sequences)
• What is a Raga (1)?
• What is a Raga (8)?: The Chalan (characteristic phrases) of a Raga
• What is a Raga (7): The Pakad or the “Grip” of a Raga
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Music of India

Here is a picture of the scale.

The beginner lessons are commonly taught in Mayamalavagaula because:

a) It has all seven notes, i.e. Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa (the higher Sa is not counted separately).

b) It does not have dual swarasthanas. The notes of Mayamalavagaula cannot be placed in other sthanas. If, for example, it had chatusruthi rishabham in it, the rishabham would be to equivalent to shuddha (komal) gandharam

c) It has a pair of symmetrical tetrachords. Traditionally, a tetrachord is a series of four tones filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion.

The tetrachords in Mayamalavagaula are S R1 G3 M1 and P D1 N3 S

d) Between pairs of notes it there is a difference of a semi-tone. So, for example, in the pair S R1, Ri is very close to Sa; in the pair G3 M1; Ga is very close to Ma; in the pair P D1; Dha is very close to Pa; and in the pair N S; Ni is very close to Sa.

e) It does not contain any vivadi swaras or “dissonant” notes. These notes are sometimes called “enemy” notes.

If you write the scale of Mayamalavagaula down it would look like this:
Arohana (ascending scale): S R1 G3 M1 P D1 N3 S
Avarohana (descending scale): S N3 D1 P M1 G3 R1 S

To give them their full names the notes of Mayamalavagaula are: Shuddha Rishabham, Antara Gandharam, Shuddha Madhyamam, Shuddha Dhaivatham, and Kākali Nishadham

I have just come across Seetha Rajan’s cd for beginners and she teaches beginners in Mohanam (Hindustani equivalent is Bhoop or Bhupali). The detailed beginner swara exercises in Mohanam can be heard here.
The sleeve notes to the CD on the Charsur website state:

In the case of vocal music, a student with an innate sense for svarasthAnAs may not have any difficulty singing these adjacent notes – sa & ri, pa & dha for instance, in their exact pitches. But an average student has difficulty in grasping these svarasthanas, as the intervals in between the pairs of svaras are very small. If correction of these is not effected at this stage, the defects get more and more pronounced as the student moves on to higher levels of music. But the catch in this situation is, that due to this particular combination of svara intervals, even repeated correction does not, in many cases prove effective. And if, for a considerable period of time, the student is not able to make much headway, he/she is likely to get demoralised, if the teacher persists, in all earnestness, to rectify the defect before proceeding further.

In this context Smt Seetha Rajan has decided to introduce the pentatonic scale mOhanam for beginners and found the results very satisfying. rAga mAyAmALavaguaLa is taught at a later stage when the student has developed a good sense of pitch. The choice of raga mOhanam, an auDava raga is primarily due to the presence of clear and wide intervals between the notes of the scale. This scale has ri, ga and dha of the sharp variety apart from ShaDja and pancama and hence there is a certain brightness about the rAga. The first requirement of musical training, i.e. opening-up of the voice is made easier by the practice of these sharp notes which facilitate “loud and bold” singing. The wide interval between the svarAs renders it easy for the children to comprehend the sthAnAs of the notes. The notes of the raga are more or less plain. Therefore rendition without gamakAs does not in any way affect the svarUpa of this raga. Moreover, if a student starts with graces or gamakAs right from his first lessons, his svarasthAnAs are seen to lack stability. Hence the selection of mOhanam with it’s pointed and sharp notes becomes logical.

Another point to be taken note of is that all the seven svaras need not be introduced right at the outset. In mOhanam the student has only to concentrate on ri, ga and dha apart from sa and pa. This is to be followed by many more auDava rAgAs,each with a different combination of sharp and flat notes, before the student is introduced to sampUrna ragas. In this method of teaching, the sequence of ragas has been planned in a logical manner, so as to introduce at each step, one or two new notes hitherto not dealt with. rAgAs with sharp svarAs are taken up initially. This is followed by those with kOmala svarAs. By the time a student covers six or seven ragas, he/she would be familiar with all the twelve svarasthAnAs of the octave.

link

Related Posts:

• Indian Classical Music for Children~5
• What is a Raga (5): Similar Aarohana and Avarohana-Different Ragas
• What is a Raga (3)- Aaroh/Avroh or Aarohana and Avarohana (Ascending and Descending Note Sequences)
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 14: More on Sur/Shruti or Pitch
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 13-What’s your frequency? The Tanpura/Tambura and finding your Sur, Shruti or Pitch

Here is Kumar Gandharva singing a bandish (composition), Mora Jhanjh Mandilara, in Bhoopali, in his own inimitable way. It is sung in Madhyalaya (medium tempo), teental.

When he sings the line “gunisab gaave raas…naachat kaanh kanhaiya“, my heart just skips …You have to wait for it of course-but there is always pleasure in the approach to the high note!

Raga: Bhupali, Tala: Teentala
Thaat: Kalyan

Sthayi : Mora Jhanj Mandilara Bajilara
Antara : Ja Teri Kaaran Rahat Mandilara
Nachat Aawey Kanhaiya
Ananda Karey Sab Loga

Gist : The drums that have been silent so long are playing today at my house, because Krishna is finally coming, dancing all the way, to the great joy of all!

http://www.itcsra.org/sra_raga/sra_raga_that/sra_raga_that_links/popup/bandish.asp?songid=121&ragaid=53

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