Ragamalika

Carnatic music terms are briefly described in this page. Major terms have their own separate article pages, while minor terms are defined / described here. Most of the keerthanas/kritis used in Carnatic music is based on Telugu language.

The order of terms is from basic to related terms, rather than alphabetic.

Nāda refers to music or musical sound. It also refers to the tone of a musical instrument.

Anāhata Nāda refers to the naturally occurring sounds (literally not struck).

Ahata Nāda refers to generated sounds or sounds made by efforts of man (literally struck).

Śruti is musical pitch. It is considered equivalent to tonic of western music. This is the pitch at which the drone is set, which is usually played by a tambura.

In Carnatic music, Sthayi refers to the octave, especially in the Telugu language. Madhyama sthayi refers to the middle octave, Tara sthayi refers to the upper octave and Mandra sthayi refers to the lower octave.

Swaram or Swara is a single note. Each swaram defines the position of note in relation to the Śruti.

A rāgam prescribes a set of rules for building a melody - very similar to the Western concept of mode. Different combination of swarams and swaram phrases form different rāgams.

Ārōhanam of a rāgam is the ascending scale of the rāgam. It describes the rules for singing ascending notes of a rāgam, including the swarams to use and swaram patterns that form the rāgam.

Avarōhanam of a rāgam is the descending scale of the rāgam. It describes the rules for singing descending notes of a rāgam.

A Melakartā rāgam is one which has all seven swarams, namely, Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni (sampoorna rāgam). The ārōhanam and avarōhanam of a melakartā ragam are strictly ascending and descending scales. It is also known as janaka rāgam (parent rāgam), because other rāgams are derived from it.

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Wikipedia