Bhupalam

Bhupalam (pronounced bhūpalam) is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is a pentatonic scale (audava rāgam or owdava rāgam). It is a janya rāgam (derived scale), as it does not have all the seven swaras (musical notes). It is also written as Bhoopalam.

It is considered an auspicious scale and a morning rāgam. In Tamil music, this scale is called Puranirmai pann and some thevarams are set to this scale. It is also used for chanting slokas, folks songs, Kathakali music and other rituals. The equivalent scale in Hindustani music is Bhupal Todi.

Bhupalam is a symetric rāgam that does not contain, madhyamam or nishādham. It is a symmetric pentatonic scale (audava-audava ragam in Carnatic music classification – audava meaning 'of 5'). Its ascending and descending scale (ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure) is as follows:

The notes used in this scale are shadjam, shuddha rishabham, sadharna gandharam, panchamam and shuddha dhaivatham, as per Carnatic music notation and terms for the swaras. Bhupalam is considered a janya rāgam of Shubhapantuvarali, the 45th Melakarta rāgam, though it can be derived from 5 other melakarta rāgams by dropping both the madhyamam and nishādham.

Bhupalam rāgam lends itself for good elaboration and has a few compositions in both classical music and film music. Here are some popular songs composed in Bhupalam.

This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam.

Bhupalam's notes when shifted using Graha bhedham, yields two pentatonic rāgams, Gambhiranata and Hamsanadam. Graha bhedham is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the shadjam to the next note in the rāgam. We get Hamsanadam by shifting the Shadjam to Shuddha Rishabham. For more details and illustrations of this concept refer Graha bhedham on Gambhiranata.