Swara

For the town in Nepal, see Swara, Nepal. For the practice of forced marriage known as "Swara" in Pakistan, see swara (custom).

Indian classical music portal

The seven notes of the scale (swaras), in Indian music are named shadja, rishabh, gandhar, madhyam, pancham, dhaivat and nishad, and are shortened to Sa, Ri (Carnatic) or Re (Hindustani), Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, and Ni and written S, R, G, M, P, D, N. Collectively these notes are known as the sargam (the word is an acronym of the consonants of the first four swaras). Sargam is the Indian equivalent to solfege, a technique for the teaching of sight-singing. Sargam is practiced against a drone. The tone Sa is not associated with any particular pitch. As in Western moveable-Do solfège, Sa refers to the tonic of a piece or scale rather than to any particular pitch.

Notation

A dot above a letter indicates that the note is sung one octave higher, and a dot below indicates one octave lower. Or, if a note with the same name-Sa, for example-is an octave higher than the note represented by S, an apostrophe is placed to the right: S'. If it is an octave lower, the apostrophe is placed to the left: 'S. Apostrophes can be added as necessary to indicate the octave: for example, ``g would be the note komal Ga in the octave two octaves below that which begins on the note S (that is, two octaves below g).

The basic mode of reference is that which is equivalent to the Western Ionian mode or major scale (called Bilawal thaat in Hindustani music). All relationships between pitches follow from this. In any seven-tone mode (starting with S), R, G, D, and N can be natural (shuddha, lit. 'pure') or flat (komal, 'soft') but never sharp, and the M can be natural or sharp (tivra) but never flat, making twelve notes as in the Western chromatic scale. If a swara is not natural (shuddha), a line below a letter indicates that it is flat (komal) and an acute accent above indicates that it is sharp (tivra). Sa and Pa are immovable (once Sa is selected), forming a just perfect fifth.

In some notation systems, the distinction is made with capital and lowercase letters. When abbreviating these tones, the form of the note which is relatively lower in pitch always uses a lowercase letter, while the form which is higher in pitch uses an uppercase letter. So komal Re/Ri uses the letter r and shuddha Re/Ri, the letter R, but shuddha Ma uses m because it has a raised form-tivra Ma-which uses the letter M. Sa and Pa are always abbreviated as S and P, respectively, since they cannot be altered.

The chart below assumes Sa to be at C.

Full form (Carnatic)	Abbreviated form (Carnatic)	Full form (Hindustani)	Abbreviated form (Hindustani)	Western
Shadaja	Sa	Shadaja	Sa	C
Shuddha Madhyama	Shuddha Ma	Shuddha Madhyama	Ma	F
Prati Madhyama	Prati Ma	Tivra Madhyama	M'a	F#
Panchama	Pa	Panchama	Pa	G

Swaras in Carnatic music

The swaras in Carnatic music are slightly different in the twelve-note system. There are three types each of Rishabha, Gandhara, Dhaivatha and Nishadha. There are two types of Madhyama, while Panchama and Shadja are invariant.

Position	Swara	Short name	Notation	Mnemonic
1	Shadja	Sa	S	sa
2	Shuddha Rishabha	Ri	R1	ra
3	Chathusruthi Rishabha	Ri	R2	ri
3	Shuddha Gandhara	Ga	G1	ga
4	Shatsruthi Rishabha	Ri	R3	ru
4	Sadharana Gandhara	Ga	G2	gi
5	Anthara Gandhara	Ga	G3	gu
6	Shuddha Madhyama	Ma	M1	ma
7	Prati Madhyama	Ma	M2	mi
8	Panchama	Pa	P	pa
9	Shuddha Dhaivatha	Dha	D1	dha
10	Chathusruthi Dhaivatha	Dha	D2	dhi
10	Shuddha Nishadha	Ni	N1	na
11	Shatsruthi Dhaivatha	Dha	D3	dhu
11	Kaisiki Nishadha	Ni	N2	ni
12	Kakali Nishadha	Ni	N3	nu

As you can see above, Chathusruthi Rishabha and Shuddha Gandhara share the same pitch (3rd key/ position). Hence if C is chosen as Shadja, D would be both Chathusruthi Rishabha and Shuddha Gandhara. Hence they will not occur in same raga together. Similarly for two swaras each at notes 4, 10 and 11.

What The Swaras Mean

Each shuddha swara (i.e., Sa, Re/Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha/Da, and Ni) is traditionally held to have originated in the sound of a different animal, and some have additional meanings of their own. Also, each swara is associated with one of the seven chakras of the body. Just as the swaras ascend through the saptak, so they are mapped onto the chakras in the body in ascending order. Komal notes are associated with the left side of each chakra; the left channel, Ida Nadi, is the side of emotion and intuition. Shuddha and tivra notes are associated with the right side; the right channel, Pingala Nadi, is the side of logic. Ragas, therefore, have more or less of an effect on a given chakra depending on the notes they contain.

Swara	Expansion	Meaning	Animal	Chakra	God
Sa	Shadja (षड्जं)	Sagar (ocean)	peacock	mūlādhāra मूलाधार ([base of spine)	Ganapati
Re	Rishabha (ऋषभ)	Aparajit	skylark	svādhiṣṭhāna स्वाधिष्ठान (genitals)	Agni
Ga	Gandhara (गान्धारं)	Gagan (sky)	goat	maṇipūra मणिपूर (solar plexus and navel)	Rudra (Shiva)
Ma	Madhyama (मध्यमं)	middle	dove/heron	anāhata अनाहत (heart)	Vishnu
Pa	Panchama (पंचमं)	fifth	cuckoo/nightingale	viśuddha विशुद्ध (throat)	Naarada
Dha	Dhaivata (धैवतं)	Dharti (earth)	horse	ājñā आज्ञा (third eye)	Sadasiva
Ni	Nishada (निषादं)	outcast/hunter	elephant	sahasrāra सहस्रार (crown of the head)	Surya (Sun)

In certain forms of Indian classical music and qawwali, when a rapid 16th note sequence of the same note is sung, different syllables may be used in a certain sequence to make the whole easier to pronounce. For example, instead of "sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa" said very quickly, it might be "sa-da-da-li-sa-da-da-li" which lends itself more to a quick and light tongue movement.

Special forms of Swaras

In the context of Indian classical music some specific forms of swara-s fulfill the technique of playing a note. Such ornamentic (Sanskrit: Alankar or Alankara) in Indian Classical Music is important for the proper rendition and essential to create the beauty of a raga. Some notes are linked with its preceding and succeeding note; these linked notes are called grace notes or Kan-swars. Kan-swars deal with so called touch notes. "touch" means sparsh in Hindi (Devangari). These grace notes (acciaccatura) are often referred to as sparsh-swars. Kan-swars or sparsh-swars can be executed vocally and on instruments in three ways:

1. using a swift short glide (meend or ghaseet), 2. as a Sparsh (technique of playing a note on a plucked stringed instrument, the movement of notes is ascending) and 3. as a Krintan (the opposite of a Sparsh, movement of notes is descending).

The Andolit swars, another special form of swaras, exist raga specific and shall not be applied to any raga using these notes. Andolit swars are notes, which are being oscillated within the Andolan alankar. The specification of the Andolan alankar is the oscillation (swing) from a fixed note touching the periphery of an adjacent note. By this oscillation the shruti-s (microtones) are touched which exist in between.

See also

• Hindustani classical music
• Carnatic music
• Gamak

Further reading

• Mathieu, W. A. (1997). Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony from Its Natural Origins to Its Modern Expression. Inner Traditions Intl Ltd. ISBN 0-89281-560-4. An autodidactic ear-training and sight-singing book that uses singing sargam syllables over a drone in a just intonation system based on perfect fifths and major thirds.

External links

• North India Sargam Notation System
• Sargam
• www.soundofindia.com Article on vivadi swaras, by Haresh Bakshi
• Ragopedia, an encyclopedia of ragas written and produced by Pandit Shiv Dayal Batish and Ashwin Batish
• ragapedia.com, an open-source tool for entering letter based notation including Sargam. Also generates western notation
• Basics of Hindustani Classical Music for Listeners, including "What is a Swara": "Video Kapsule" 2 hours 37 minutes and "Downloadable Slide Deck"