Melakarta Melodies- A Journey through the 72 Melakarta Ragas

Vakulabharanam is the second raga in the Agni Chakra. The ragas in Agni chakra are charectarized with the intrinsic penance like outlook with the purvanga being the R1 G3 M1 combination. Let me give the Wikipedia link for cursory link  Vakulabharanam - Wikipedia . The name is suggestive of its position as the 14th Melam.  Vakulabharanam takes it a step further with the uttaranga inducing pathos with the famous D1 N2 combination. The name Vakulabharanam means flower's ornament. It is a delicate raga, not like its contemporaries in the same chakra. Delicate in the sense that its not flat sounding like its sister Gayakapriya (who ends up with a D1 N1), not sharp like D1 N3 like Mayamalavagowla. Just ends up in the sweet spot. The purvangam has a royal majesty of S R1 G3 M1, breaking the closely held Ri Ga interludes. The Indu chakra has a very close R1 G1 which makes R1 expression predominant over G1. The nethra chakra has the R1 G2 relationship, while the Ga is placed a bit further f

 Nasikabhushani is the 4th raga in the 12th chakra- Aditya. Apart from going into the cursory Wikipedia link (which i will paste here for a casual reference to the raga ie:  Nasikabhushani - Wikipedia ), my aim is to illustrate the beauty of this raga. Nasikabhushani is in the spot of having a vivadi swara in the form of R3. The R3 allows only the singing of G3 to accompany it, and therefore the R3 G3 mix is a bit imperious, (considering the closeness of the notes) when compared to the playful R2 G3 or serious sounding R1 G3. In general, closer sounding notes together, dont lend themselves to individual gamakas. Here with the R3 being three places away from Sa (R1,R2), the R3 by itself is played on the violin with the index finger, and the slide is charectaristic of the R3 note. If there were no G3 note, then R3 could have been called G2, but the combination of R3, G3 makes sure that R3 is emphasised. Since the R3 is played with an elongation, the Ga is played flat, being placed very c