Video: Hare Krishna maha-mantra in 32 Carnatic ragas, on the violin by Srinath Iyer
In a single eight-and-a-half-minute take, violinist Srinath Iyer moves the Hare Krishna maha-mantra through thirty-two ragas of Carnatic music, from Kalyani to the closing Madhyamavati.
A video published on Akincana Gocara’s YouTube channel on 1 October 2026 presents the Hare Krishna maha-mantra played on the violin in thirty-two different ragas of Carnatic music, the classical tradition of South India. The performer, identified in the opening caption as Srinath Iyer, plays seated in a white kurta, wearing Vaishnava tilaka, with a small on-screen label naming each raga as it begins.
The video runs eight minutes and forty-two seconds, which gives each raga roughly a quarter of a minute: enough for one or two rounds of the sixteen-word mantra before the melody shifts into the next scale. The sequence mixes the heavy, concert-opening ragas of the Carnatic repertoire, such as Kalyani, Kharaharapriya and Kambhoji, with lighter ragas borrowed from the Hindustani tradition, such as Behag, Sindhu Bhairavi, Jonpuri and Desh, and ends, as a Carnatic concert conventionally does, with Madhyamavati.
The thirty-two ragas, in the order they appear on screen:
- Kalyani
- Revati
- Mand
- Hindolam
- Ananda Bhairavi
- Mohanam
- Bowli
- Brindavana Saranga
- Charukesi
- Kharaharapriya
- Pantuvarali
- Hamsadhvani
- Sahana
- Behag
- Dhanyasi
- Suddha Dhanyasi
- Kanada
- Nattai
- Sindhu Bhairavi
- Sama
- Valaji
- Chakravakam
- Natakurinji
- Ahiri
- Neelambari
- Jonpuri
- Keeravani
- Desh
- Kambhoji
- Kedaragowla
- Saraswati
- Madhyamavati
Setting the maha-mantra to classical ragas has a long history in the Hare Krishna movement, where kirtan leaders routinely draw on both Hindustani and Carnatic scales. Presenting thirty-two of them in one continuous instrumental performance is a less common format, and the video offers a compact tour of the Carnatic raga system for listeners who know the mantra but not the music.
Source: Chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra in 32 different ragas of Classical South Indian Karnatic music, Akincana Gocara on YouTube.
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