Carnatic Music
The Southern tradition
Karnāṭaka saṅgīta is the classical music of South India: a system of seventy-two parent scales, seven tāḷa families, and a repertoire of composed kṛtis that a performer opens up with improvisation in the moment. Where Hindustani music unfolds a rāga slowly from silence, a Carnatic concert moves through composition and improvisation in alternation, held together by a hand-kept tāḷa.
Both traditions share the same swaras and the same idea of rāga. We teach them side by side, and the melakartā profiles below connect each Carnatic parent scale to its Hindustani thāṭ.
The Seventy-Two Melakartā
Twelve chakras of six scales each give seventy-two complete parent rāgas, every one a distinct combination of the sixteen swarasthānas. Every other rāga — a janya — is derived from one of them by dropping, bending or zig-zagging notes. Nine are profiled in full here.
The Saptha Tāḷa
Seven tāḷa families, each built from aṅgas — laghu (clap plus finger counts), drutam (clap and wave) and anudrutam (a single clap). Five jātis of laghu multiply the seven into thirty-five; these are the cycles heard most often.
| Tāḷa | Aṅgas | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Ādi (Chatuśra Tripuṭa) | Laghu 4 + Drutam + Drutam | 8 akṣara |
| Rūpaka | Drutam + Laghu 4 | 6 akṣara |
| Miśra Chāpu | 3 + 4 (clap pattern) | 7 akṣara |
| Khaṇḍa Chāpu | 2 + 3 (clap pattern) | 5 akṣara |
| Aṭa (Khaṇḍa) | Laghu 5 + Laghu 5 + Drutam + Drutam | 14 akṣara |
| Jhampa (Miśra) | Laghu 7 + Anudrutam + Drutam | 10 akṣara |
| Ēka (Chatuśra) | Laghu 4 | 4 akṣara |
Shape of a Kacchēri
A concert is a sequence, not a single unfolding — voice or violin with mṛdaṅgam, tambura and often ghaṭam or kañjira, building from warm-up to the free centre and out again.
Varṇam
A composed study opening the concert — fixed text and swaras through both slow and fast speeds, setting rāga and tāḷa in the room.
Kṛti with ālāpana
The heart of the repertoire: pallavi, anupallavi and caraṇam, preceded by free ālāpana and often opened out with niraval and svara kalpana.
Rāgam–Tānam–Pallavi
The improvisatory summit — unmetred rāgam, pulsed tānam, then a single line of pallavi turned through tāḷa and rāga at will.
Tani āvartanam
The percussion solo, taken after the main kṛti; the mṛdaṅgam and its companions trade cycles and return exactly to the beat.
Tukkaḍā
Lighter pieces to close — padam, javali, tillānā, bhajan and the final maṅgalam.
Manōdharma
Ālāpana, niraval, svara kalpana and tānam are all made on the spot within the grammar of the rāga; nothing is written down.
The Trinity
Three near-contemporaries in and around Thanjavur gave the tradition most of its concert repertoire. Nearly every kacchēri still draws on them.
Tyāgarāja
1767–1847Some six hundred kṛtis in Telugu, mostly to Rāma — direct in language, endlessly singable, and the backbone of teaching repertoire.
Muttusvāmi Dīkṣitar
1775–1835Stately Sanskrit compositions in vilamba kāḷa, rich in rare rāgas and grouped into thematic garlands such as the Kamalāmbā navāvaraṇa.
Śyāma Śāstri
1762–1827A smaller body of work of great structural finish, largely to the goddess, and notable for its use of Miśra Chāpu and the swarajati form.
Before them, Purandara Dāsa laid down the graded exercises still used on the first day of study, and Annamācārya and the Tallapaka poets left a devotional repertoire that predates the concert form.
Hindustani Rāga and Carnatic Melakartā
Every rāga profiled on this site set against the melakartā whose scale it shares, and against its nearest Carnatic counterpart in performance. The scale correspondence is exact; the rāga correspondence is a family resemblance — gamaka, phrasing and the hours they are sung remain different.
| Hindustani rāga | Thāṭ | Parent melakartā | No. | Carnatic counterpart |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bhairav | Bhairav | Māyāmāḷavagauḷa | 15 | Māyāmāḷavagauḷa |
| Āhīr Bhairav | Bhairav (miśra) | Cakravākam | 16 | Cakravākam |
| Toḍī | Toḍī | Śubhapantuvarāḷi | 45 | Śubhapantuvarāḷi |
| Bilāwal | Bilāwal | Dhīraśaṅkarābharaṇam | 29 | Śaṅkarābharaṇam |
| Deshkār | Bilāwal | Harikāmbhoji | 28 | Mōhanam |
| Śuddha Sārang | Kalyāṇ | Mēcakalyāṇi | 65 | Sārangatarangiṇi |
| Madhyamād Sārang | Kāfī | Kharaharapriyā | 22 | Madhyamāvati |
| Nāyakī Kānaḍā | Kāfī | Kharaharapriyā | 22 | Nāyaki |
| Darbārī Kānaḍā | Āsāvarī | Naṭabhairavi | 20 | Darbār |
| Pūriyā Dhanāśrī | Pūrvī | Kāmavardhani | 51 | Pantuvarāḷi |
| Yaman | Kalyāṇ | Mēcakalyāṇi | 65 | Kalyāṇi |
| Kedār | Kalyāṇ | Dhīraśaṅkarābharaṇam | 29 | Kēdāram |
Two pairs share a parent: Yaman and Śuddha Sārang both sit on Mēcakalyāṇi; Bilāwal and Kedār on Dhīraśaṅkarābharaṇam. Nāyakī and Madhyamād Sārang both come from Kharaharapriyā.
Two Traditions, One Grammar
| Carnatic | Hindustani |
|---|---|
| 72 melakartā, 12 chakras | 10 thāṭ |
| Kṛti — composition at the centre | Khyāl — the rāga unfolds first |
| Tāḷa kept by hand, in akṣaras | Tāl kept on the tablā, in mātrās |
| Gamaka continuous and weighted | Meend, kaṇ and murkī, more sparing |
| Rāgas are not bound to the clock | Rāgas belong to hours of the day |
The Circle of Time & Rāgas shows the pairing directly: each Hindustani rāga sits beside the melakartā that carries its scale.