Every parent scale of Carnatic music — built up from a single note, and played back on the violin.
Start from one swara. Learn the twelve positions a note can take. See how just two simple choices, made six ways each, give us exactly seventy-two parent ragas — then hear any of them played as arohanam and avarohanam.
Carnatic music uses seven basic notes, called Sapta Swara. We sing them in short form: Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Da Ni. Two of them never change their pitch — Sa (the home note) and Pa — so we call them the fixed swaras. Tap any card to hear it on the violin.
In Carnatic violin, the four strings are tuned Sa – Pa – Sa – Pa, so the home note and Pa are literally built into the instrument.
Sa and Pa stay put. But Ri, Ga, Ma, Da and Ni can each be sung a little lower or higher — these landing spots are the swarasthanas (swara positions). Across one octave there are twelve positions in total. Tap a position to hear its pitch.
Notice that some positions share a pitch but carry two names — for example the same spot can be a higher Ri or a lower Ga. Which name we use depends on the raga, and that is exactly what builds the 72.
A Melakarta is a complete parent scale. To qualify it must follow three rules — and these rules are what let us count them exactly.
So how do we reach seventy-two? Sa and Pa are fixed, so the choices come from the rest. The Ma can be one of two positions. The pair Ri&Ga can be arranged six valid ways, and the pair Da&Ni another six ways. Multiply the choices:
The seventy-two are grouped into twelve chakras of six ragas each. The first six chakras all use Ma1 (Shuddha Madhyamam); the last six use Ma2 (Prati Madhyamam). A raga's number is simply (chakra − 1) × 6 + position. Tap a chakra to jump straight to its first raga in the explorer.
Pick any of the seventy-two. You'll see its swaras light up on the position strip, read its arohanam (ascending) and avarohanam (descending), and hear them played as a bowed violin — at a learner-friendly pace you control.
The violin sound here is a synthesised bowed tone for learning the scale shape — a guide for the ear, not a substitute for the real instrument under a guru's eye.