Ragam Revathi is another very popular, but rare raga – there are a huge number of compositions (about 90) available, still only some of them are heard sung. Some compositions have been popularized by some musicians; but generally, there are not many popular krithis in this raga. It is the same reason, why it is again grouped under Rare Ragas. The raga is an oudava janyam of mela (2) Ratnangi; losing G1 and D1 in both directions. The ragaswaroopam can be found as :
S R1 M1 P N2 S // S N2 P M1 R1 S
Ragapravaham by D.Pattammal places it under Ratnangi and Vakulabharam (melas 2 & 14) as:
S R M P N S // S N P M R S (mela 2)
S R M P N S // S N P M G R S (mela 14)
The steep fall from M1 to R1 gives a very special beauty and flavor to this raga; again the N2 with the stand alone oscillations add very special colour to the raga. Due to these special features, the raga is not much seen applied in film songs; but finds vast application in devotional songs. The karuna and bhakthi rasas that this raga evokes is beautiful, and it is to be noted that many of the Vedic verses and slokas are chanted in Revathi. The Hindusthani raga that closely resembles Revathi would be Bairagi Bhairav.
It can be seen that a change in R1 to R2 makes a considerable difference and it becomes the mangala raga, Madhyamavathi, which is also very popular. Though Revathi is considered a janya of Ratnangi mela, it can be obtained from other mela ragas like (4) Vanaspathi, (8) Thodi, (10) Natakapriya, (14) Vakulabharanam and (16) Chakravakam – since the Gandharam and Dhaivatham are absent.
None of the Trinities has composed krithis in this raga; it becomes a fairly new one thus. The raga seems to have been introduced by Dr. M.Balamuraleekrishna, but it was existing even before and Dr. BMK had only popularized the same.
Compositions (popular):
Akathi velava - Annamacharya
Aparadhi Nanalla - Purandaradasar
Bho shambho - Dayananda Saraswathi
Dayamado ranga - Purandaradasar
Hari narayana - Purandaradasar
Jagannatha anatharakshaka - Subba rao
Mahadeva shiva - Tanjore Sankara Iyer
Mohana vamshi – Dr. Balamuraleekrishna
Nanati batuku - Annamacharya
Navaratna Bhushana - Kollegal R Subramanian
Neeyallal enakkar - D.Pattammal
Parthasarathiye - Dr.S.Ramanathan
Podum podum patta thuyar - D.Pattammal
Pozhudu migavaccude - Ambujam krishna
Petra thai thanai - ramalinga swamikal
Yadava nee ba - purandaradasar
Tingalur andanar - D.Pattammal
Undan padam Vendinen - K.Ramaraj
VAni Veena pani - Kalyani Varadarajan
Thillana - Lalgudi G.Jayaraman
(Ramathe Yamuna pulina, Jayadeva ashtapadi is sung in this raga)
As this raga was popularized by Dr. BMK, his lone composition, ‘mOhana vamsi’ is taken for discussion. Here is the lyrics:
pallavi
mOhana vamshI vAdana madhurima vAhinilO tanuvu pulakitamainadi
caraNam 1
mOhitulai gOpikA samUhamella maimaraciri
caraNam 2
shrI hari iha bAdhalella hariyincenu hAyi golpaganA
caraNam 3
prANi kOTulella vENu nAdanambu vInula vinabaDaga vEgadari cEranu
caraNam 4
akaLanka nADamayamai jagamu pulakinca amara dAnava yakSa kinnarAdulu mecca
nagajA manOharuDu tANDavamu shEyagA munulella mudamandi vandanamu sEyagA .