As we noted before, all melakartas
employ a complete (sampoornam) arohanam - avaro- hanam structure.
The purvangam of a melakarta refers to the lower half of the Arohanam -
Avarohanam, namely Sa-Ri-Ga-Ma and uttarangam refers to the upper half or Pa-Da-Ni-Sa.
First let us examine the possible variations in the uttarangam. Pa
is fixed. Da can occupy three sthanas and so can the Ni. But, the Ni has to be always above the Da
and that leaves us with the following six possible uttarangams.
- Pa-Suddha Dhaivatham-Suddha Nishadam-Sa
- Pa-Suddha Dhaivatham-Kaisika Nishadam-Sa
- Pa-Suddha Dhaivatham-Kakali Nishadam-Sa
- Pa-Chatusruthi Dhaivatham- Kaisika Nishadam-Sa
(Suddha Nishadam occupies the same swara sthana as Chatusruthi Dhaivatham and
hence the two cannot occur together)
- Pa-Chatusruthi Dhaivatham - Kakali Nishadam-Sa
- Pa-Shatsruthi Dhaivatham-Kakali Nishadam-Sa
These six uttarangam combinations are denoted by the names Pa, Sri,
Go, Bhu, Ma and Sha respectively. The following series of figures
illustrate the keyboard locations of the swaras in these six
uttarangam combinations as also the corresponding numbered swara
sthanams (the number 13 refers to the Sa of the next octave) for one
kattai sruthi. |
