Melakartha system
we have been talking a lot about janya ragams and melakartha ragams….I thought it is time to exactly describe how this melakarha number comes up.
If you have the ganamrutha bodhini book you will find the details at the begining of the book where theory is given (atleast it is there in the varnam book and I expect that it would be there in all the ganamrutha bodhini books).
If you dont have patience to read it or if you do not have the book…here it is…
Melakartha is basically a collection of ragams. What ragams??….the fundamental ragams. There are 72 such ragams and all of them together constitute the melakartha.
the other ragams are obtained by getting he notes out of these ragams.
The melakartha ragams have certain specific characteristics
1. They must be a sampoorna raagam. i.e, they must have all the notes included (S, R , G, M, P, D, N)
2. They must be krama sampoorna raagams. i.e, the notes must appear in the aarohanam and avarohanam in the order S R G M P D N S and should not have any other kind of arrangement.
3. The upper S must be included in the aarohanam and avarohanam of the raagam
4. the aarohanam and avarohanam must have the same notes
This scheme envisages the lower Sa , upper Sa and Pa as fixed notes, with the Ma having two variants and the remaining swaras Ri , Ga , Dha and Ni as having three variants each. This leads to 72 seven-note combinations referred to as the Melakarta ragas.
Now lets get to see how to determine the melakartha number of a raagam.
It is based on the Katapayadi sankhya
Katapayadi sankhya
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Kadi nava ka kha ga gha nga ca cha ja jha nya
Tadi nava ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa ta tha da dha na
Padi pancha pa pha ba bha ma
Yadi ashta ya ra la va śha sha sa ha
To use the sankhya, take the first two syllables of the name of the raagam and locate the corresponding columns on the table. Then take the two numbers and reverse them to get the mela number
for example:
lets take raagam DheeraShankarabharanam
the firt two syllables are Dha and Ra
dha->9 Ra ->2
hence the melakartha number of the raagam is 29
The notes ‘Sa’ and ‘Pa’ are fixed, and here is how to get the other swaras from the melakarta number.
Melakartas 1 through 36 have Ma1 and those from 37 through 72 have Ma2.
The other notes are derived by noting the (integral part of the) quotient and remainder when one less than the melakarta number is divided by 6.
‘Ri’ and ‘Ga’ positions: the raga will have:
Ri1 and Ga1 if the quotient is 0
Ri1 and Ga2 if the quotient is 1
Ri1 and Ga3 if the quotient is 2
Ri2 and Ga2 if the quotient is 3
Ri2 and Ga3 if the quotient is 4
Ri3 and Ga3 if the quotient is 5
‘Da’ and ‘Ni’ positions: the raga will have:
Da1 and Ni1 if remainder is 0
Da1 and Ni2 if remainder is 1
Da1 and Ni3 if remainder is 2
Da2 and Ni2 if remainder is 3
Da2 and Ni3 if remainder is 4
Da3 and Ni3 if remainder is 5
lets again take the example of Dheerashankarabharanam
Now 29 36, hence Dheerasankarabharanam has Ma1. Divide 28 (1 less than 29)by 6, the quotient is 4 and the remainder 4. Therefore, this raga has Ri2, Ga3 (quotient is 4) and Da2, Ni3 (remainder is 4).
This raga’s scale is Sa Ri2 Ga3 Ma1 Pa Da2 Ni3 SA.
The melakartha raagams come under 12 chakras (6 ragams in each chakra)
Indu chakra (includes kanakangi, rathnangi, ganamoorthi, vanaspathi, manavathi, tanaroopi)
netra chakra (includes senavathi, hanumathodi, denuka, natakapriya, kokilapriya, roopavathi)
agni chakra (includes gayakapriya,vakula brahmanam, mayamalavagowla, chakravakam, sooryakantham, hatakambari)
veda chakra (includes jhankaradhwani, natabhiravi, keeravani, karaharapriya, gourimanohari, varunapriya)
bana chakra (includes mararanjani, charukesi, sarasangi, harikamboji, dheerashankarabharanam, naganandhi)
ritu chakra (includes yagapriya, ragavardhini, gangeyabhooshani, vagadeeshwari, shoolini, chalanata)
rishi chakra( includes salagam, jalarnavam, jhalavarali, navaneetam, pavani, raghupriya)
vasu chakra (includes gavambodhi, bhavapriya, shubhapantuvarali, shadvidhamargini, suvarnangi, divyamani)
brahma chakra (includes dhavalambari, namanarayani, kamavardhini, ramapriya, gamanashrama, vidhwambari)
disi chakra (includes shamalangi, shanmukhapriya, simhendramadhyamam, hemavathi, shrmavathi, neethimathi)
rudra chakra (includes kantamani, rishabhapriya, latangi, vachaspathi, mechakalyani, chitrambari)
aditya chakra (includes sucharitra, jyothiswaroopini, dhatuvardhani, nasikabhooshani, kosalam, rasikapriya)
to listen to the aarohanam avarohanam of all the melakartha raagams at
http://www.carnaticindia.com/melakartha_ragas.html
Hope this was helpful. I have not put in details of how this came into existence and history etc….I felt all that was not necessary for one to put this to use.
