Melakarta

What does melakarta mean?

A melakarta is a parent scale in Carnatic music. It uses all seven notes in order, both going up and coming down. Parent scales help organise ragas, the melodic frameworks musicians perform.

There are 72 melakarta scales, arranged in 12 groups of six. These groups are called chakras. This system helps identify note relationships, but does not explain a raga’s phrases or character.

Ragas derived from a melakarta are called janya ragas. The melakartas themselves are also performed, not just used as parent scales.

This is a short definition. For the full explanation, read BeatRootRaga’s Thaat and melakarta explained learning page.

An example of melakarta and where to read more

Keeravani is the 21st melakarta, a parent scale in Carnatic music. It uses all seven notes in order, going up and coming down. In Hindustani music, it is known as Kirwani.

Melakartas are not just categories for organising ragas, the melodic frameworks musicians perform. The melakartas themselves are also performed. Ragas derived from a melakarta are called janya ragas. The parent scale helps identify note relationships, but does not explain a raga’s phrases or character.

For the full explanation, follow Keeravani’s example with Thaat and melakarta explained. That BeatRootRaga learning page compares these Carnatic parent scales with thaats, the seven-note parent scales used to organise ragas in Hindustani music.