Abhogi

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Abhogi (Ābhōgi) is a popular raga in Carnatic music that has also been adapted into Hindustani music as Abhogi Kanada. It is a pentatonic scale (five notes) and is classified as audava-audava because both its ascent (arohaṇa) and descent (avarohaṇa) use only five notes. The notes used are Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, and Da (Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Dha); Pa and Ni are not used. It is a janya raga derived from Kharaharapriya (the 22nd Melakarta), though it can also be viewed as obtainable from Gourimanohari by dropping Pa and Ni. In Graha bhedam (shifting the tonic), Abhogi yields Valaji, another pentatonic raga, and Kalavati is considered by some to be a transposition of Abhogi.

In Hindustani music, the raga is known as Abhogi Kanada and is placed in the Kafi thaat; it uses a very similar five-note set, with some characteristic Kanada phrases distinguishing it from the Carnatic version. Abhogi is typically played in medium to fast tempos and is used in both classical and film music. It is related to Bageshri, though Bageshri has a slightly different flavor due to its use of Ni and Pa.