Terms & naming systems

Terms used across the Atlas, and how each tradition sorts rāgas.

Shared basics

Rāga: A set of notes and the rules for moving through them: which notes stand out, which are skipped on the way up, and which phrases make it recognisable. A scale on its own is not a rāga.
Svara: A note. There are seven names: Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni (Carnatic spells it Ri). Sa and Pa never move. The other five each have a higher and a lower version.
Sa · ṣaḍja: The home note. It isn’t a fixed pitch: each performer picks their own Sa, and the drone (tānpurā) holds it all the way through.
Ārohaṇa · avarohaṇa: The ascent and the descent. Hindustani usually shortens these to āroh and avroh. The two can use different notes, or take a zig-zag path.
Saptak · sthāyi: The octave: saptak in Hindustani, sthāyi in Carnatic. Both have three registers: mandra (low), madhya (middle) and tāra (high).
Śruti: Shades of pitch finer than the twelve notes; the old texts count twenty-two. In everyday Carnatic speech it also means the drone’s pitch.
Gamaka: Movement on or between notes: oscillations, slides and grace notes. Carnatic music treats it as part of the note itself. Hindustani names the types separately: mīṇḍ (glide), kaṇ (grace note), āndolan (slow sway).
Tāla · lay · kāla: Tāla is the rhythmic cycle, such as tīntāl (16 beats) or ādi tāḷam (8 beats). Tempo is lay in Hindustani — vilambit, madhya, drut — and kāla in Carnatic.

Note names

Hindustani calls a lowered note komal (soft) and a raised Ma tīvra (sharp). Carnatic numbers each version and gives four positions two names. That way every melakarta has exactly one Ri, Ga, Dha and Ni. Tap a row to hear it.

If Sa = C	Carnatic	Hindustani
	SṢaḍja	Sa
	R₁Śuddha Ri	Rekomal
	R₂ = G₁Catuśruti Ri · Śuddha Ga	Reśuddha
	R₃ = G₂Ṣaṭśruti Ri · Sādhāraṇa Ga	Gakomal
	G₃Antara Ga	Gaśuddha
	M₁Śuddha Ma	Maśuddha
	M₂Prati Ma	Matīvra
	PPañcama	Pa
	D₁Śuddha Dha	Dhakomal
	D₂ = N₁Catuśruti Dha · Śuddha Ni	Dhaśuddha
	D₃ = N₂Ṣaṭśruti Dha · Kaiśikī Ni	Nikomal
	N₃Kākali Ni	Niśuddha

03 · Carnatic

Carnatic classification

One rule-based system: 72 parent scales, with every other rāga derived from one.

Melakarta72 parent scales

Venkaṭamakhin laid this out in the 17th century. Every melakarta uses all seven notes, strictly in order going up and down. Ri–Ga has 6 possible pairs and so does Dha–Ni, giving 36 scales. Doubling those with each Ma gives 72.

Janyaderived rāgas

A rāga derived from a melakarta, its janaka (parent). It may leave notes out (varja), zig-zag (vakra), or borrow an outside note (bhāṣāṅga). A janya that uses only its parent’s notes is called upāṅga.

Kaṭapayādinumber in the name

The first two syllables of each melakarta’s name encode its number. Read the digits, then reverse them. In Mē·cakalyāṇi, ma = 5 and ca = 6. Reversed, 56 becomes 65, so it is mela 65.

Cakra12 groups of six

The 72 are split into twelve groups of six. Each group is named after something that comes in that number. The first six groups use śuddha Ma, the last six prati Ma.

1–6Indu · moon
7–12Netra · eyes
13–18Agni · fires
19–24Veda · Vedas
25–30Bāṇa · arrows
31–36Ṛtu · seasons
37–42Ṛṣi · sages
43–48Vasu · Vasus
49–54Brahma · Brahmas
55–60Diśi · directions
61–66Rudra · Rudras
67–72Āditya · suns

04 · Hindustani

Hindustani classification

Thāṭ is the main filing system. The others describe character.

Thāṭ10 parent scales

V. N. Bhatkhande set these out in the early 1900s. Each thāṭ is seven notes in order, and each rāga is filed under the one it fits best. It works as a filing system, not a way to generate rāgas, so some rāgas fit awkwardly.

Bilāval · Khamāj · Kāfī · Āsāvarī · Bhairavī · Bhairav · Kalyāṇ · Mārvā · Pūrvī · Toḍī

Samaytime of day

Each rāga has an hour of the day (and sometimes a season) when it should be performed. Twilight rāgas, called sandhi-prakāś, tend to use komal Re. Yaman, for example, belongs to early evening.

Aṅgalower or upper half

The octave splits into pūrvāṅg (Sa to Pa) and uttarāṅg (Ma to high Sa). A rāga leans on one half or the other. Aṅga can also mean a family resemblance, as in “Kalyāṇ-aṅg”.

Rāga–rāginīhistorical

An older system of six “male” rāgas, each with wives and children. Thāṭ replaced it, but you still see it in rāgamālā paintings.

Side by side

The same idea under each tradition’s name.

Idea	Carnatic	Hindustani
Parent scale	Melakarta (72)	Thāṭ (10)
How parents are made	Every possible combination, by rule	Chosen from rāgas already in use
Derived rāga	Janya of a janaka	Rāga of a thāṭ
Most important note	Jīva svara or aṃśa	Vādī, with samvādī second
Signature phrase	Prayoga, sañcāra	Pakaḍ, chalan
Notes up · down	Ārohaṇa · avarohaṇa	Āroh · avroh
5 · 6 · 7 notes	Auḍava · ṣāḍava · sampūrṇa	Auḍav · ṣāḍav · sampūrṇa

The ten thāṭs as melakartas

Hear them in the Atlas →