Glossary · glossary · 1 min read
Varnam
வர்ணம்; the Carnatic practice piece
A varnam is a compact composition in Carnatic (South Indian classical) music that shows the full range of a raga, a melodic framework. Students learn it after basic exercises, and it often opens a concert.
By John, Music lover from Bangalore · Reviewed by BRR · Last reviewed 29 Sept 2026
What Varnam means
A varnam is a compact composition in Carnatic (South Indian classical) music that shows the full range of a raga, a melodic framework. It brings the raga’s characteristic phrases and gamakas, or note ornaments, together in a few minutes.
Those phrases show how the raga moves, rather than simply which notes it uses. Singing a varnam well shows that a student knows the raga, not just the individual notes.
A varnam has two halves. The first contains the pallavi (opening section), anupallavi (second section) and muktayi swara (a passage of sung notes). The second contains the charanam (concluding section) and a set of swara passages, sections built from sung notes.
Where you will meet a varnam
Students learn a varnam after the basic exercises in Carnatic music, the South Indian classical tradition. Ninnukori, the Mohanam varnam, is one of the first varnams most students learn. It gives you a named example of the form and its place in a student's learning.
You will also meet varnams at concerts, where they often serve as the opening piece. The same form that students study has a place at the start of a performance.
A varnam packs a raga's typical phrases into a few minutes. A raga is a melodic framework. Singing the varnam well shows that the student knows that framework and the phrases that give it its character.
Keep going
- Pallavi, anupallavi and charanam: the three parts of a Carnatic song · In a typical kriti, the main composed song form of Carnatic (South Indian classical) music, the pallavi is the opening section that returns. The anupallavi is the second section, developing the opening, while the charanam is the concluding section and usually the longest.