en Megh (raga)

Megh (raga)
Thaat	Kafi
Time of day	Any time during the rainy season
Season	Rainy season
Arohana	S M R M P Ṉ Ṡ
Avarohana	Ṡ Ṉ P M R M Ṉ̣ R S
Pakad	R R S Ṉ̣ S M R P M R Ṉ̣ S
Vadi	Sa
Samavadi	Pa
Equivalent	Madhyamavathi (Carnatic); Egyptian Pentatonic Scale (Western)

Megh is a Hindustani classical raga. The meaning of megh in Sanskrit is 'cloud'. Hence this raga is mostly sung or played in the monsoon season. Another raga which describes rain is raga Malhar. These two ragas were merged and a new raga developed, raga Megh Malhar. The Carnatic music equivalent of this raga is Madhyamavati.

Theory

Arohana & Avarohana

Arohana: S M R M P Ṉ Ṡ

Avarohana: Ṡ Ṉ P M R M Ṉ̣ R S

Pakad

R R S Ṉ̣ S M R P M R Ṉ̣ S

Vadi & Samavadi

In this raga vadi is Sa and samavadi is Pa – Re is used a lot but always sliding down from M, n always slides from P

Organization & Relationships

Related ragas: Ragas of Malhar family, namely Megh Malhar, Miyan ki Malhar, Gaud Malhar, Ramdasi Malhar, Dhuliya Malhar, etc. as well as Madhmad Sarang.
Thaat: Kafi.

Mixture

The meaning of Megh in Sanskrit is 'Cloud'. Hence this raga is mostly sung or played in the Monsoon season. Another raga which describes rain is raga Malhar. So these 2 ragas where merged and a new raga was developed, this raga is raga Megh Malhar. So raga Megh has mixture with raga Malhar which forms raga Megh Malhar.

Behaviour

Samay (Time)

Late night.

Seasonality

Raga Megh is commonly associated with the monsoon season. Because the meaning of Megh in Sanskrit is 'Cloud'. Hence this raga is mostly sung or played in the Monsoon season.

Rasa

Gambhir rasa

Historical Information

Origins

This is one of the very old ragas found in Indian classical music. This raga is related from Lord Krishna time period, when Govardhan Parvat (mountain) was on Lord Krishna's short finger during the Govardhan leela, then Lord Shiva generated a Damru sound to protect Lord Krishna. That sound which was generated by the Damru was raga MEGH....

Legend

There is legend stating that Tansen's physical agony after singing Raga Deepak (Poorvi Thaat) was pacified with listening to Raga Megh Malhar rendered by two sisters, Tana and Riri.

Film songs

Language: Hindi

Song	Film	Year	Composer	Singer
Khaike Pan Banaraswala	Don	1978	Kalyanji-Anandji	Kishore Kumar
Teri Tasveer Ko	Sawan Ko Aane Do	1979	Raj Kamal	K. J. Yesudas
Kahan Se Aaye Badra	Chashme Buddoor	1981	Raj Kamal	K. J. Yesudas, Haimanti Shukla
Chaiyya Chaiyya	Dil Se..	1998	A R Rahman	Sukhwinder Singh, Sapna Awasthi
Dheem Ta Dare	Thakshak	1999	A R Rahman	Surjo Bhattacharya
Munni Badnaam Hui	Dabangg	2010	Lalit Pandit	Mamta Sharma
Shankara Re Shankara	Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior	2020	Mehul Vyas	Adarsh Shinde

Language: Tamil

A few songs are composed in Raga Madhyamavathi, the Carnatic equivalent of Megh.

Song	Film	Composer	Singer
Muthukkalo Kangal	Nenjirukkum Varai	M. S. Viswanathan	T. M. Soundararajan, P. Susheela
Kana Kaanum	Agni Sakshi	M. S. Viswanathan	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Saritha
Aagaya Gangai	Dharma Yuddham	Ilayaraja	Malaysia Vasudevan, S. Janaki
Tholvi Nilayenna Ninaithal	Oomai Vizhigal	Manoj-Gyan	P B Sreenivas, Abavanan, Chorus
Velli Malarae	Jodi	A. R. Rahman	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Mahalakshmi Iyer
Oru Deivam Thantha Poove	Kannathil Muthamittal		P. Jayachandran, Chinmayi
Thumbi Thullal(Abheri traces also)	Cobra		Nakul Abhyankar, Shreya Ghoshal
Thom Karuvil Irunthom	Star		Shankar Mahadevan
Ennai Konja Konja	Aathi	Vidyasagar	Hariharan, Sujatha Mohan

Important recordings

Amir Khan, Ragas Megh and Lalit, HMV LP (long-playing record), EMI-EASD1331
Pt Ajoy Chakraborty -Raag Megh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg6LDWgv4Tc)

References

The Raga Guide: A Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas. Zenith Media, London: 1999.

Ramashreya Jha explains the difference between Sarang and Megh http://www.parrikar.org/hindustani/sarang/

Megh (raga)