Free lessons · Nathaniel School of Music
Learn the 72 Melakarta Ragas
The complete parent-scale system of Carnatic music, taught from the ground up: how each raga maps to Western scales and intervals, how to harmonize a raga into chords, how the janya ragas grow from their parents, and a guide to every one of the 72 with its scale, its chords, its children and its songs. Every lesson connects to the interactive 3D sphere, where you can hear it all over a real tanpura.
Start with the ideas
Melakarta Ragas and Western Music: The 72 Scales as Intervals and Modes
A clear map from the 72 melakarta ragas to Western music: how each swara becomes a degree-accurate interval, which melas are the major scale, harmonic minor and the modes, and why the correlation is exact.
7 min read →How to Harmonize a Carnatic Raga: Chords from the Melakarta Scales
Carnatic music is melodic, but every melakarta scale hands back a full set of chords. Learn how to stack thirds on each swara, which triads and sevenths appear, and how home, dominant and colour chords work in a raga.
6 min read →Janya Ragas Explained: The Children of the Melakarta
Most of the ragas you hear in concert are janya ragas, children of the 72 melakartas. Learn how a janya is born by dropping notes or bending the path, with examples like Mohanam, Hamsadhwani, Kambhoji and Sri.
6 min read →How to See the 72 Melakarta Ragas: A Visual Map of the System
The 72 melakarta ragas are not a list to memorise but a system with a shape. Learn the chakra grammar, the katapayadi number code, and how a 3D map makes the whole raga system visible and hearable at once.
5 min read →Popular janya ragas
Most of what you hear in concert are janya ragas — children of the melakartas. Each guide shows the arohanam and avarohanam drawn and sounded, the Western and Hindustani names, and the songs to learn.
- MohanamMajor pentatonic
- HamsadhwaniHamsadhwani, adopted north
- Kambhojiof Harikambhoji
- HindolamMalkauns
- MadhyamavatiMadhumad Sarang
- AbhogiAbhogi, adopted north
- Sriranjaniof Kharaharapriya
- Srino equivalent; Hindustani Shree is a different raga
- Bilahariof Dheerasankarabharanam
- Saveriof Mayamalavagowla
- Dhanyasiof Hanumatodi
- ShivaranjaniShivranjani
- Varaliof Jhalavarali
- Amritavarshiniof Chitrambari
- Kathanakuthuhalamof Dheerasankarabharanam
- Mohanakalyaniof Mechakalyani
- Shuddha SaveriDurga
- Malahariof Mayamalavagowla
- RevatiBairagi
Every melakarta, one by one
A page for each of the 72 melakartas: the scale, its degree-accurate Western intervals, the chords it harmonizes into, its janya children, and — for the concert ragas — the compositions to learn. ★ marks a concert favourite.