Amruthavarshini

"Thoongatha vizhigal rendu" is one of my favourite Ilayaraja songs. In keeping with my recent frenzy for learning Carnatic music, I found out the raaga that this song is based on, it is Amruthavarshini.
The raga goes like S G3 M2 P N3 S - S N3 P M2 G3 S

I found a gamut of songs in this ragam on MusicIndiaOnline. Notable among them is a song called Anandamrita performed by Ravi Kiran on the chitra veena (gottuvadhyam - a fretless version of veena/sitar). Another amazing number is an RTP (ragam thanam pallavi) in Amruthavarshini played by U Srinivas. I feel if I want to understand a raga completely, the best way to do that would be to listen to an RTP by U Srinivas on mandolin.
Then there's a song sung by Nityashree called Enai Nee Maravade which bears a very distinct resemblance to Thoongatha Vizhigal (obviously because they are based on the same ragam, but then being a newbie to Carnatic music, I find such things quite fascinating).
An interesting number I found was a song played by Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan on violin called Varsha Ritu, its got great violins and also some interesting background vocals. Out of curiosity about the title of the song, I googled more and found out that it is believed that singing the ragam Amruthavarshini with devotion can bring in rain to the earth. There have been numerous occasions where musicians would gather in a temple singing various kritis all in this ragam, and invariable a few days later there would be rain. Pretty interesting!
In fact this anecdote which dates back to Ramayana is even more interesting. When Ravana set fire to Hanuman’s tail, he set fire to the entire Lanka. How was the fire put out? Legend has it that Ravana played the Amruthavarshini raga on his Veena and brought forth rain.

Whoa, that was a whole lot of interesting stuff I found about this one ragam! Next time I listen to "Thoongatha Vizhigal" I will do so with a whole new perspective...