| Carnatic |
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| Culture |
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THE
MELAKARTA SCHEME
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| Contemporary Carnatic music is
based on a system of 72 melakarta ragas. These 'creator' ragas are also called janaka ragas and thai
(mother) ragas. The current system can be traced to the works of
Venkatamakhi who appears to be the first to use 72 melakartas.
Earlier works generally contain fewer melakartas and most have flaws
in organization. At that time, (16th century) many of Venkatamakhi's melakartas were
unknown and were not assigned names. Later, all 72 were given names and this system is
sometimes referred to as the Kanakaambari - Phenadhyuthi system after the names of
the first two melakartas in it. Muthuswamy Dikshithar's compositions are
generally based on the raga names and lakshanams (definitions) in this
system while Thyagaraja used a later scheme devised by Govindacharya in the late 18th
century. Venkatamakhi did not believe that melakartas must be
of simple sampoorna arohanam - avarohanam but favored the idea of
calling a raga as a melakarta if all the seven swaras occurred in
either the arohanam or the avarohanam. Thus
a raga which went Sa-Ri-Ma-Pa-Ni-Sa, Sa-Da-Pa-Ga-Ri-Sa could be a
melakarta under this scheme. Govindacharya's insistence on sampoorna
arohanam - avarohanam leads to a system which is more elegant from a
mathematical viewpoint. In this scheme, the melakartas arise out of
systematic permutation of the seven swaras into the twelve swara
sthanas. Seen this way, the melakarta scheme is a product of
mathematical abstraction and the naming of swaras (and the
introduction of vivadi swaras) is of no consequence as far as
the organization of the melakartas is concerned. No wonder,
Venkatamakhi is reputed to have said that even Lord Maheswara could
not create more melakartas! |
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| About
The Melakarta Scheme |
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