Last Updated On: March 25, 2003
This collection is intended as an Online reference of South Indian classical rAgams. Some sample MP3 files having ArOHanam and avarOHanam have also been provided in a separate page.
The index can be used to refer to any rAgam directly. A letter M next to a rAgam on the index indicates a mELakarthA rAgam which does not have any janya rAgam. The letter A next to a rAgam on the index indicates an asampUrna mELakarthA rAgam. A letter J found next to the rAgam on the index indicates a mELakarthA rAgam which has janya rAgams. You can click on the letter J found next to the name of the rAgam to directly go to the janya rAgams of that mELakarthA rAgam. You can look up the mELakarthA rAgam from the janya rAgam list by clicking on the mELakarthA rAgam in the janya list.
What is a rAgam?
Just as beauty of paintings and sculptures are in the eye of the beholder, we firmly believe that a rAgam is a collection of sounds and sound sequences which is enjoyed and experienced differently by each individual listener. Each listener is interested in different aspects of a rAgam or songs in a rAgam. We believe that many rAgams' personality (also known as svarUpam or bhAvam) cannot be described sufficiently in a scientific, notational or even detail descriptive manner, just like art cannot be completely described in words. Read more on our views in the page Personality of a rAgam.
Primary Sources
The primary sources for this rAgam list are
1. Ragas in Carnatic Music, by S Bhagyalekshmy
2. Sree Muthuswami Dhikshithar Keerthanaigal, by A Sundaram Iyer
3. List
of Carnatic Ragams, v1.13, by Kumaran Santhanam
Transliteration Scheme
The transliteration scheme used is exactly the same as the one used by Kumaran Santhanam which is given below.
a | A | i | I | u | U | Ru | RU |
e | E | ai | o | O | ow | am | : |
k | K | g | G | n' | |||
ch | Ch | j | J | N' | |||
t | T | d | D | N | |||
th | Th | dh | Dh | n | |||
p | ph | b | bh | m | |||
y | r | l | v | ||||
sh | Sh | s | H | ||||
ksh | gny | ||||||
(Additional Dravidian letters) | |||||||
L | zh | r' |
Svara Notation
R1 | shudhDha rishabham | D1 | shudhDha dhaivatham | |
---|---|---|---|---|
R2 | chathushruthi rishabham | D2 | chathushruthi dhaivatham | |
R3 | sathshruthi rishabham | D3 | sathshruthi dhaivatham | |
G1 | shudhDha gAndhAram | N1 | shudhDha nishAdham | |
G2 | sAdhArana gAndhAram | N2 | kaishiki nishAdham | |
G3 | anthara gAndhAram | N3 | kAkaLi nishAdham | |
M1 | shudhDha madhyamam | M2 | prathi madhyamam |
Request for additional information
I would like to have additional information about many rAgams. Please see the Notes on janya rAgams page for more details.
History of changes
Added a separate page on description of Personality of a rAgam (svarUpam or bhAvam) on March 25, 2003.
Corrections to some of the spellings undertaken on 22 October, 2000.
You can read more about the additions for some of the rAgams, by using the links for those rAgams on this page. The information pages have MP3 samples of selected simple rAgams.
Added the asampUrna mELakarthA rAgams on May 17, 1999.
Added the following janya rAgam on April 2, 2000.
rukmAmbari |
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rAjalaHari |
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dhEvaranjani | rasikaranjani | janasammOdhini |
---|---|---|
sallApam | samudhrapriyA | sAvithri |
chandhrakauns |
karnaranjani | shudhDha HindhOlam (also varamu) |
karnAtaka shudhDha sAvEri |
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sunAdhavinOdhini | vijaya sarasvathi | nirOshta |
---|---|---|
shivaranjani | priyadharshini | lavan'gi |
shudhDha sImandhini | magadhi | manOranjani |
rEvathi | kOkilavarALi | rasALi |
mAruva dhanyAsi | vardhini | kEsari |
simHavAHini | shrImaNi | binna shadjam |
kalagaNti |
ArOHanam & avarOHanam of sampUrna mELakarthA rAgams
ArOHanam & avarOHanam of asampUrna mELakarthA rAgams
ArOHanam & avarOHanam of janya rAgams