Melakarta

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Carnatic Mēḷakartā is a collection of fundamental musical scales (ragas) in Carnatic music (South Indian classical music). Mēḷakartā ragas are parent ragas (hence known as janaka ragas) from which other ragas may be derived. A melakarta raga is sometimes referred as mela, karta or sampurna as well, though the latter usage is inaccurate, as a sampurna raga need not be a melakarta (take the raga Bhairavi, for example).

In Hindustani music the thaat is the rough equivalent of Melakartā. There are 10 thaats in Hindustani music, though the commonly accepted melakarta scheme has 72 ragas.

Rules for Mēḷakarta ragas

Ragas must contain the following characteristics to be considered Melakarta:

• They are sampurna ragas – they contain all seven swaras (notes) of the octave in both ascending and descending scale.<ref name="ragas">Ragas in Carnatic music by Dr. S. Bhagyalekshmy, Pub. 1990, CBH Publications</ref><ref name="primer">A practical course in Carnatic music by Prof. P. Sambamurthy, 15th edition published 1998, The Indian Music publishing house</ref>
• The upper shadjam is included in the raga scale.<ref name="primer" /> (ragas like Punnagavarali and Chenchurutti are not mēḷakarta as they end with nishadam)
• The ascending and descending scales must have the same notes.<ref name="primer" />

History

The mēḷa system of ragas was first propounded by Raamamaatya in his work Svaramelakalanidhi c. 1550. He is considered the father of mela system of ragas. Later, Venkatamakhin, a gifted musicologist in the 17th century, expounded a new mela system known today as mēḷakarta in his work Chaturdandi Prakaasikaa.<ref name="dikshitar">Shree Muthuswami Dikshitar Keertanaigal, by A Sundaram Iyer, Madras Book Publications, Mylapore, Chennai</ref> He made some bold and controversial claims and defined somewhat arbitrarily 6 svaras from the known 12 semitones, at that time, to arrive at 72 mēḷakarta ragas. The controversial parts relate to double counting of R2 (and similar svaras) and his exclusive selection of madhyamas for which there is no specific reasoning (also known as asampurna melas as opposed to sampurna ragas). However, today the 72 mēḷakarta ragas use a standardized pattern, unlike Venkatamakhi's pattern, and have gained a significant following. Govindhacharya is credited with the standardization of rules and known for giving different names for standard ragas that have a different structure but the same swaras as those proposed by Venkatamakhi.<ref name="dikshitar" /> The scales in this page are those proposed by Govindaacharya.

Determining the Mēḷakarta

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} A hundred years after Venkatamakhin's time the Katapayadi sankhya rule came to be applied to the nomenclature of the mēḷakarta ragas. The sankhya associates Sanskrit consonants with digits. The digits corresponding to the first two syllables of the name of a raga, when reversed, give the index of the raga. Thus the scale of a mēḷakarta raga can be easily derived from its name. The Sanskrit rule of “Sankhyānam vāmatò gatihi” means for arriving to digits, you read from right to left.

For example, Harikambhoji raga starts with syllables Ha and ri, which have numbers 8 and 2 associated with them. Reversing them we get 28. Hence Harikambhoji is the 28th Mēḷakarta rāga. See Katapayadi sankhya for more details and examples.

Mēḷakarta scale

Each mēḷakarta raga has a different scale. This scheme envisages the lower Sa (Keezh Shadja), upper Sa (Mael Shadja) and Pa (Panchama) as fixed swaras, with the Ma (Madhyama) having two variants and the remaining swaras Ri (Rishabha), Ga (Gandhaara), Dha (Dhaivata) and Ni (Nishaada) as having three variants each. This leads to 72 seven-note combinations (scales) referred to as the Mēḷakarta ragas as follows.

There are twelve semitones of the octave S, R1, R2=G1, R3=G2, G3, M1, M2, P, D1, D2=N1, D3=N2, N3 (see swaras in Carnatic music for explanation of these notations). A melakarta raga must necessarily have S and P, one of the M's, one each of the R's and G's, and one each of the D's and N's. Also, R must necessarily precede G and D must precede N (krama sampūrṇa rāga). This gives 2 × 6 × 6 = 72 ragas. Finding mēḷakarta ragas is a mathematical process. By following a simple set of rules we can find the corresponding raga and the scale associated with it.

A raga which has a subset of svarās from a Mēḷakarta raga is said to be a janya (means born or derived from) of that Mēḷakarta raga. Every raga is the janya of a mēḷakarta raga. Janya ragas whose notes are found in more than one mēḷakarta raga are assigned (or associated) parent Melakarta based on subjective notions of similarity. This is obvious for ragas that have less than seven notes. For such ragas it can be associated with a Mēḷakarta which has any of the different swaras in that position. For example, Hindolam has Rishabha and Panchama missing. Hence, it could be considered a janya of Todi (also known as Hanumatodi) which has shuddha rishabha or with Natabhairavi which has a chathushruti rishabha. It is popularly associated with Natabhairavi.

Chakras

File:Melakarta.katapayadi.sankhya.72.png

Melakarta chart as per Katapayādi system. (On the prati-madhyamam side, all instances of ni₂da₃ should instead say ni₃da₂.) (Sarasangi and Harikamboji should be swapped. That is Sarasangi is the 27th raaga and Harikamboji is the 28th.)

The 72 Mēḷakarta ragas are split into 12 groups called chakrās, each containing 6 ragas. The ragas within the chakra differ only in the dhaivatam and nishadam notes (D and N), as illustrated below. The name of each of the 12 chakras suggest their ordinal number as well.<ref name="ragas" /><ref name="sim">South Indian Music Book III, by Prof. P Sambamoorthy, Published 1973, The Indian Music Publishing House</ref>

• Indu stands for the moon, of which we have only one – hence it is the first chakra.
• Nētra means eyes, of which we have two – hence it is the second.
• Agni is the third chakra it indicates three kinds of Agni (Dakshina, Ahavaniyam and gArhapatyam). So agni indicates 3rd Chakra.
• Vēda denoting four Vedas is the name of the fourth chakra.
• Bāṇa comes fifth as it stands for the five Arrows of Manmatha.These arrows of Manmatha are mango, lotus, blue lily, jasmine and asoka. These arrows were to give the person hit by it have intense issues
• Rutu is the sixth chakra standing for the 6 seasons of Hindu calendar, which are Vasanta, Greeshma, Varsha, Sharat, Hemanta and Shishira.
• Rishi, meaning sage, is the seventh chakra representing the seven sages.
• Vasu stands for the eight vasus of Hinduism.
• Brahma comes next of which there are 9.
• Disi Chakra indicates Ten directions(East, West, North, South, North East, North West, South East, South West, Above and Below). Hence it is 10th Chakra.
• Eleventh chakra is Rudra of which there are eleven.
• Twelfth comes Ādityas of which there are twelve.

These 12 chakras were also established by Venkatamakhi.

Table of Mēḷakartā ragas

The 72 Mēḷakartā ragas can be divided into two parts, shuddha madhyama and prati madhyama ragas. When a given shuddha madhyama raga's M1 is replaced by M2, we get the corresponding prati madhyama raga. See Katapayadi sankhya for more information on how to derive the various swaras of a raga from its mēḷakartā number.

See swaras in Carnatic music for explanation of the notations like R1, G2, N2, and so forth.

'Template:IAST'
Shuddha Madhyama			Prati Madhyama
No.	Raga	Scale	No.	Raga	Scale
1. Indu Chakra			7. Rishi Chakra
1	Kanakāngi	Template:SvaraC	37	Sālagam	Template:SvaraC
2	Ratnāngi	Template:SvaraC	38	Jalārnavam	Template:SvaraC
3	Gānamūrti	Template:SvaraC	39	Jhālavarāḷi	Template:SvaraC
4	Vanaspati	Template:SvaraC	40	Navanītam	Template:SvaraC
5	Mānavati	Template:SvaraC	41	Pāvani	Template:SvaraC
6	Tānarūpi	Template:SvaraC	42	Raghupriyā	Template:SvaraC
2. Netra Chakra			8. Vasu Chakra
7	Senāvati	Template:SvaraC	43	Gavāmbhodi	Template:SvaraC
8	Hanumatodi	Template:SvaraC	44	Bhavapriyā	Template:SvaraC
9	Dhenukā	Template:SvaraC	45	Śubhapantuvarāḷi	Template:SvaraC
10	Nātakapriyā	Template:SvaraC	46	Shaḍvidamārgini	Template:SvaraC
11	Kokilapriyā	Template:SvaraC	47	Suvarnāngi	Template:SvaraC
12	Rūpavati	Template:SvaraC	48	Divyamaṇi	Template:SvaraC
3. Agni Chakra			9. Brahma Chakra
13	Gāyakapriyā	Template:SvaraC	49	Dhavaḻāmbari	Template:SvaraC
14	Vakuḷābharaṇam	Template:SvaraC	50	Nāmanārāyaṇi	Template:SvaraC
15	Māyāmāḻavagowla	Template:SvaraC	51	Kāmavardhini	Template:SvaraC
16	Chakravākam	Template:SvaraC	52	Rāmapriyā	Template:SvaraC
17	Sūryakāntam	Template:SvaraC	53	Gamanāśrama	Template:SvaraC
18	Hātakāmbari	Template:SvaraC	54	Viśvambari	Template:SvaraC
4. Veda Chakra			10. Disi Chakra
19	Jhankāradhvani	Template:SvaraC	55	Śāmaḻāngi	Template:SvaraC
20	Naṭabhairavi	Template:SvaraC	56	Śanmukhapriyā	Template:SvaraC
21	Kīravāṇi	Template:SvaraC	57	Simhendramadhyamam	Template:SvaraC
22	Kharaharapriyā	Template:SvaraC	58	Hemavati	Template:SvaraC
23	Gourimanohari	Template:SvaraC	59	Dharmavati	Template:SvaraC
24	Varuṇapriyā	Template:SvaraC	60	Nītimati	Template:SvaraC
5. Bana Chakra			11. Rudra Chakra
25	Māraranjani	Template:SvaraC	61	Kāntāmaṇi	Template:SvaraC
26	Chārukesi	Template:SvaraC	62	Riśabhapriyā	Template:SvaraC
27	Sarasāngi	Template:SvaraC	63	Latāngi	Template:SvaraC
28	Harikāmbhōji	Template:SvaraC	64	Vāchaspati	Template:SvaraC
29	Dhīraśankarābharaṇam	Template:SvaraC	65	Mechakalyāni	Template:SvaraC
30	Nāganandini	Template:SvaraC	66	Chitrāmbari	Template:SvaraC
6. Rutu Chakra			12. Aditya Chakra
31	Yāgapriyā	Template:SvaraC	67	Sucharitrā	Template:SvaraC
32	Rāgavardhini	Template:SvaraC	68	Jyoti svarupini	Template:SvaraC
33	Gāngeyabhuśani	Template:SvaraC	69	Dhāthuvardhani	Template:SvaraC
34	Vāgadhīśvari	Template:SvaraC	70	Nāsikābhūśaṇi	Template:SvaraC
35	Śūlini	Template:SvaraC	71	Kōsalam	Template:SvaraC
36	Chalanāṭa	Template:SvaraC	72	Rasikapriyā	Template:SvaraC

Alternate Mēḷakarta scheme

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Muthuswami Dikshitar school followed a different set of scales as the 72 Mēḷakarta ragas.<ref name="dikshitar-appendices">Shree Muthuswami Dikshitar Keerthanaigal, Appendix III and IV, by A Sundaram Iyer of Kallidaikurichi, Music Books Publishers, Mylapore, Chennai</ref> These were taught by Venkatamakhin.<ref name="dikshitar" /> Many of the scales were asampurna (not sampurna ragas) because Dikshitar chose to follow the earlier established structure to mitigate ill-effects of usage of direct vivadi swaras in the scales.<ref name="dikshitar" />

See also

• Janya raga
• List of Janya Ragas
• Illustration of the notes in Melakarta ragas in a Keyboard layout at Wikimedia commons
• Katapayadi system
• List of film songs based on ragas