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Author - Dr. Parthasarathy Sriram

Dr. Parthasarathy Sriram, is an aerospace engineer, with a bachelors degree from IIT, Madras (1982).

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Preface

This booklet is aimed at music lovers everywhere who wish to learn a little bit about the basic theory of Carnatic music.

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Introduction

"Nature has endowed this universe with many beautiful life forms, of so many different shapes, sizes and abilities."

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Swaras And Swarasthanas

There are seven swaras in Carnatic music, namely, Shadjam (Sa), Rishabam (Ri), Gandharam (Ga), Madhyamam (Ma), Panchamam (Pa), Dhaivatham (Da) and Nishadam (Ni).

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Ragas

Ragas are sometimes defined as melody types. The raga system is a method of organizing tunes based on certain natural principles.

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The Melakarta Scheme

Contemporary Carnatic music is based on a system of 72 melakarta ragas. These 'creator' ragas are also called janaka ragas and thai (mother) ragas.

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Janya Ragas

Janya ragas, as we have seen before, are derived from the melakarta ragas.

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Taalam

We have seen that the term raga refers to the tune or melody characteristics.

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Grahabedam and Symmetries

The topics of this section are of fairly advanced nature and somewhat abstract and mathematical.

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Published on: 2003-02-07 (4317 reads)

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