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SWARAS
AND SWARASTHANAS
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| There are seven swaras in Carnatic
music, namely, Shadjam (Sa), Rishabam (Ri), Gandharam (Ga),
Madhyamam (Ma), Panchamam (Pa), Dhaivatham (Da) and Nishadam (Ni).
There is some theoretical basis for why there is an odd number (seven) of swaras and
we will deal with this subsequently. For simplicity, let us fix the Sa at
one kattai and place the remaining swaras at the successive white
keys. This provides us with a scale or a raga (in this case, containing all
the seven swaras). As mentioned previously, ancient Vedic chants have but three swaras and
somewhat later forms of music (Indian as well as other forms,
e.g.. Chinese) use five swaras -
e.g.. the Sa, Ri, Ga, Pa and Da of the scale we just created. Our present
system is based on seven swaras, and perhaps, a few thousand years from now, the
human race will advance to a point of discriminating scales of more swaras (unlikely).
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