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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).
Dr. Parthasarathy Sriram
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