72 Melakarta Ragas

A Melakarta raga has seven distinct notes in its Arohanam, ascending in pitch, (kramasampurna) and has the same notes in the Avarohanam, as its descent. We saw in the beginning of the Raga-a-Week feature, that there are twelve distinct notes in the scale and allowing for more than one value for some of them we get the sixteen swara scale. We will recollect that for this section on the Melakarta raga

The sixteen notes were written as below

S R1 R2 R3

G1 G2 G3 M1 M2 P D1 D2 D3

N1 N2 N3 Ṡ

By the above what we mean is that the same pitch can be sung either as R2 or G1, R3 or G2, D2 as N1, D3 as N2 and so on

From these 16 notes we need to form a set of ragas, that follow the rule of kramasampurna (notes chosen should be ascending order in the pitch) and that the raga should have the same notes in ascent (Arohanam) and in descent ( Avarohanam )

Now let us look how to accomplish this systematically.

Keeping the 1st half of the notes up to P identical let us find the set of ragas that arise by combinations of D1,D2,D3 and N1,N2,N3. We can immediately see that if we pick D1, we can have 3 combinations with N1,N2,N3, viz., (1)D1,N1, (2) D1,N2, (3)D1, N3;

But if we choose D2, we can have only have D2,N2 and D2,N3 as combinations, since we will otherwise violate the criterion for Kramasampurna that we need to observe. And if we choose D3, we can only have the D3,N3 combination; so for a fixed given set of notes upto P (termed poorvanga), we have 6 combinations from D,N variations. One such set of six ragas is called Chakra. It is easy to see that R and G will also give six variations, thus each of this can generate 6 ragas due to D,N variations, therefore there will arise in all : 36 ragas, from R,G, and D,N variations, constituting 6 chakras. If we add to each of these two possibilities due to the two M variations, we get 2x36=72 ragas, termed the melakarta ragas. This results in 12 chakras in all

We now show by example how the first six Melakarta ragas are derived from this 12/16 note scheme illustrated above. The highlighted notes corresponding to D & N are only changed, when we move from raga to the next, the notes upto P are fixed for the whole set of six ragas discussed below

1. Kanakangi

S R1 G1. M1 P D1 N1 Ṡ Kramasampurna (D1, N1)

Ṡ N1 D1 P M1 G1 R1 S Same notes in ascent and descent

2. Ratnangi

S R1 G1 M1 P D1 N2 Ṡ Kramasampurna (D1, N2)

Ṡ N2 D1 P M1 G1 R1 S Same notes in ascent and descent

3. Ganamurti

S R1 G1 M1 P D1 N3 Ṡ Kramasampurna (D1, N3)

Ṡ N3 D1 P M1 G1 R1 S Same notes in ascent and descent

4. Vanaspati

S R1 G1 M1 P D2 N2 Ṡ Kramasampurna (D2,N2)

Ṡ N2 D2 M1 P G1 R1 S Kramasampurna rule requires only N2 or N3 can come after D2

5. Manavati

S R1 G1 M1 P D2 N3 Ṡ

Ṡ N3 D2 M1 P G1 R1 S

6. Tanarupi

S R1 G1 M1 P D3 N3 Ṡ

Ṡ N3 D3 M1 P G1 R1 S

This first chakra is called the Indu chakra

The first 36 ragas take M1, while the next 36 ragas may be obtained by replacing M1 with M2. The 72 Melakarta ragas with the notes they take and the chakras they fall in are given below with links (adapted from Wikipedia).

The Trinity have not composed songs in all these ragas. Shri Maha Vaidhyanatha Sivan, has made ragamalika with each of the 72 MelaKartha Ragas. This was televised by Podhigai TV during 2012-2013 and the episodes are available in Youtube. Shri Koteeswara Iyer has composed songs in all the 72 Melakartha ragas, in Tamil.

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