At Some Point: Why 'Ga' and why not 'Ma'?

Couple of days back my daughter started learning raag Bhupali [called as Mohanam in Carnatic music]. She has been learning raag Durga [called Shuddha Saveri in Carnatic music] for the past 3 months. Just to make her understand the notes of Bhupali, told her to replace the note "Ma" in Durga to "Ga" to get Bhupali. That's when she started asking this persistent question, Why 'Ga' Bappa? A very difficult question to answer. Her Sitar teacher made her play the notes of Bhupali, in ascending and descending orders, for her to get comfort. It took her few sessions to get over the 'Ma' and play 'Ga'.

I was struggling within myself on how to make her understand the differences in raagas. I got hold of few audios / videos of Bhupali and Durga [vocal as well as instrumental], and made her listen to them quite a few times, and get feel for the two raagas and the differences.

According to music therapists, raag Durga is supposed to give a 'joyful' (आनंद) mood and help in dispelling depression, and ushering in positivity and in addition to renewing the energy centres in the body. While raag Bhupali is supposed to give a feeling of 'Shant' (शांत) i.e., Serene, Quite and Peaceful.. So changing of note "Ma" to "Ga" changes the mood from आनंद to शांत.

Now the big question in front of me is, how to measure these effects, claimed by music therapists? Want to do a small experiment, where I want to measure the effect of these two raagas on people, especially those with neudo-developmental disorders.

Here are two hindi film songs one based on Bhupali and the other based on Durga. One of my all time favourite song "Sayonara.. Sayonara.." from the movie 'Love in Tokyo', is based on raag Bhupali.

The song बृंदावन का कृष्णा कनैया (by Hemant Kumar, Md Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar) from an old movie 'Miss Mary' is based on raag Durga. The music is originally created for a Telugu song, and then used in Tamil and Hindi. Those who have an ear for nuances in music, might be able to feel the differences - 'Ma' in place of 'Ga', leading to शांत and आनंद.

Now let me add here two lovely short classical presentations, one vocal rendition in raag Durga and the other Bansuri rendition in raag Bhupali. I am making my daughter listen to these many times (of course, she enjoys too 😀), leading to, she imbibing the differences, so that, on some day, it can inspire her in her playing Sitar.