Saturday, September 02, 2006
Lesson-45 : A Glimpse of Melakartha Table
As discussed earlier the basic raagam pattern exercises will yield 72 raagams called Melakartha Ragams.
The Melakartha table is illustrated below for your easy ready reference.
(Click here and Download the Excel File format from the file section of Ilaiyaragam Group)
Examine that carefully…! And particularly visualize their grouping !
They are basically divided into 2 Major divisions
36 ragams based on M1 and remaining 36 ragams based on M2.
Within that also, they are arranged in groups of Six, each called “Chakra”.
Also the name of ragam is so selected that, from the first two letters you can tell their number (there is a method for that !), and from their number you can easily make out that what kind of variants of R, G, D and N are used in that particular raagam.
Amazing…isn’t it…!
Just like Periodic Table we used in the Chemistry …..! Very number will indicate you the property of the element…!
Also, you can see from the Melakartha table and examine the Sanakarabaranam pattern (no 29 ) and check whether it matches with our Major Scale pattern.
Similarly, Keeravani (21) matches our Harmonic minor scale, Gowri Manohari (23) matches our Melodic Minor ascending, and Natabairavi (20) matches our Melodic Minor descending pattern !
So WCM is having only 4 recognised patterns against the 72 patterns of Carnatic.
This makes the Carnatic the richer…! Isn’t it ?
Now, on Pattern formation w.r.t. Carnatic as well as WCM, we have some comparative ideas.
So, once again, we are wiser than yesterday …. .!
In the next session, we will further expand our knowledge on other Pattern formations in Carnatic scheme.
That will give you a picture of the Scale Vs Raagam concepts !
The Melakartha table is illustrated below for your easy ready reference.
(Click here and Download the Excel File format from the file section of Ilaiyaragam Group)
Examine that carefully…! And particularly visualize their grouping !
They are basically divided into 2 Major divisions
36 ragams based on M1 and remaining 36 ragams based on M2.
Within that also, they are arranged in groups of Six, each called “Chakra”.
Also the name of ragam is so selected that, from the first two letters you can tell their number (there is a method for that !), and from their number you can easily make out that what kind of variants of R, G, D and N are used in that particular raagam.
Amazing…isn’t it…!
Just like Periodic Table we used in the Chemistry …..! Very number will indicate you the property of the element…!
Also, you can see from the Melakartha table and examine the Sanakarabaranam pattern (no 29 ) and check whether it matches with our Major Scale pattern.
Similarly, Keeravani (21) matches our Harmonic minor scale, Gowri Manohari (23) matches our Melodic Minor ascending, and Natabairavi (20) matches our Melodic Minor descending pattern !
So WCM is having only 4 recognised patterns against the 72 patterns of Carnatic.
This makes the Carnatic the richer…! Isn’t it ?
Now, on Pattern formation w.r.t. Carnatic as well as WCM, we have some comparative ideas.
So, once again, we are wiser than yesterday …. .!
In the next session, we will further expand our knowledge on other Pattern formations in Carnatic scheme.
That will give you a picture of the Scale Vs Raagam concepts !
