Bhushavali is a minor rare raga, in the sense that there are not many compositions available; even among these only one or two krithis like “Gopanandana” by Maharaja Swathithirunal are heard in concerts. Again, the janaka ragam, Vachaspathi, this is not sung with much elaboration – alapana. Mostly, it is used as fillers in the first half or towards the end of concerts. This raga can be explained as Vachaspathi raga, losing Kaishiki Nishadam (N2) in the Arohanam only; that the ragaswaroopa can be written as: S R2 G3 M2 P D2 S // S N2 D2 P M2 G3 R2 S We can see that while the arohanam notes are similar to Kambhoji (with M1 changed to M2), the avarohanam notes are same as those of Vachaspathi (prathimadhyama raga of mela-28 Harikambhoji). There is a raga in the Dikshithar system, called Bhushavathi, which is the name of the 64th mela in the Asampoorna system (followed by Dikshithar) and should not be confused with this raga. Ragapravaham by D.Pattammal gives different specifications under mela 59 (Dharmavathi) and 64 (Vachaspathi). Under mela-59, S R G R M P N S // S N D P M G R S Under mela-64, S R G M P D S // S N D P M G R S S R P M P D S // S N D P M G R S S R G M P D N S // S N D P M G R S Bhushavali is one of the Rara ragas used by Swathithirunal.
Compositions: En pizhaigalai - Suddhananda Bharathi Gopanandana - Swathi ThirunaL Innum orumurai - Subramanya Bharatiyar Kurai theerave - Kovai Subri Nee dayavai - Ambujam Krishna Pambani pittanai - Periyasami Tooran Unran Kaiyal - Periyasami Tooran RundamAla - Dr. Muthaiah Bhagavathar Shambum katoram - Dr. Muthaiah Bhagavathar Tanameeda ne - Thyagaraja Vageeswari varade - Mavelikara Prabhakara Varma Thillana - Kalyani Varadarajan The mostly heard composition is the Swathithirunal krithi, ‘Gopanandana’; the others are mostly unpopular. We are taking up a very rarely heard composition, “Vageeswari varade” in this raga, by Sangeetha Paramacharya, Mavelikara Sri. Prabhakara Varma (well-known musician and ex-Principal, RLV College of Music, Tripunithura. Sri. Varma has notated a number of Tulaseevanam krithis and has a very large number of prominent carnatic musicians as his disciples). This composition is on Goddess Saraswathi and written in Sanskrit language. As his 92 nd remembrance day was yesterday (2 nd November), we shall take this composition this week under Bhushavali, and listen to an excellent rendition by Vaikom Sri. T.V.Jayachandran (disciple of Sri.T.M.Thyagarajan; Ramakrishnan Murthy is disciple of Sri. Jayachandran).