Its been raining again this past week and the weather is all nice, cool and cozy and I just feel like curling up with a good book and sipping some tea while listening to the pitter patter of rain drops hitting my window awnings. Alas, I have work to do, classes to teach and assignments to grade so I’ll just settle for talking about Megh Raga, the node of the rainy season and will show you pieces inspired by the Megh Family from my Ragamala Collection. Take a Look.
Megh or Megha means clouds and the Megh Raga stands for invocation of the Rain Gods or to be sung as celebration of Rains. Sometimes it is sung as a prayer in anticipation of rains. Rendition of the Malhar Raga – The Megh Malhar or the Malhar family -Gaud Malhar, Sur Malhar by experts is said to bring torrential rains. There is a story among the Tales of Akbar, that bears testimony to this which I’ll narrate in an upcoming post on “Dipak Raga” as these two are related.
Parent Raga: Megh Raga
Wives: Sorathi, Gaund-Malari, Asa, Gunguni, Sooho. Sons: Biradhar, Gajdhar, Kedara, Jablidhar, Nut, Jaldhara, Sankar, Syama…Source (Wikipedia)
Megh Raga is sung at night and during the monsoon season. Carnatic equivalent– Madhyamavati
Megh Raga necklace – Asymmetrical necklace of glass, ceramic and coiled wire beads with lengths of chain and Glass pendant of Krishna dancing with gopikas in the rain signifying megh raga, squiggly prong set with silver plated brass wire. This design started as a rectangular glass pendant without a bail as I couldnt find any good glue-on bails locally. So I decided to wire wrap it. From my previous experience with rectangular pendants I also know that are pretty hard to get an even bezel wire wrap so I decided on a prong set. But I had only done a 4 or 6 prong before and realised that it wouldnt work for this piece as it would cover the most important aspect of the image.
I challenged myself to set a fairly heavy glass piece in a continuous three prong setting where the prongs would be asymmetrical and slightly turned away so as to not hide the image. At First it looked impossible then, I found my inspiration in the most unlikeliest of places (and things) – The female reproductive system chart of humans!!
Okay Please don’t get shocked. In School I used to draw these sketches on the blackboard in my biology class in 9th and 10th as I was good with drawing so it kinda got burned into my brain. The back of this pendant is based on the reproductive system concept with the two ovaries on either side of the uterus. I figured, if such a setup was strong enough to carry a baby, it would be strong enough to hold a glass pendant and it did. I did add a thin resin glaze at the back to protect the paper used for the image and to seal in the wire
Gaundmallar – Decoupaged and gold cord rimmed acrylic pendant of Gaundmalar ( Lady playing dumrhoo before the rains) with simple blue and yellow bead necklace. Gaundmallar ragini is the wife of Megh raga – Its mood is joyful because the rains cause the crops to grow and the flowers to bloom
So how do you like these pieces? I hope you find them interesting
Its been a while since I started writing this post as I have been sick on and off. We finally figured out that I have Typhoid (God knows how?!). Unfortunately all my design plans have to be put on hold while I concentrate of gaining my strength back so that I can go back to teaching and finish my portions. I guess I got my wish of curling up and reading a book even though its the last thing I want to do now. Like they say – “Be careful what you wish for, you might actually get it”. So on a slightly moody note.
Cheers
Find other posts on the other Raga Families here:
What is Ragamala?
Bhairav Raga – Raga of Autumn
Megh Raga -Raga of monsoon season
Malkaus Raga – Raga of Winter
Hindol Raga – Raga of Spring
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