The Melakarta Chart

The Melakarta Chart is a visual representation of all 72 Melakarta Ragas and their derivations. The chart is separated into a hierarchical tree model with representations for each swara family. The center of the chart represents the origin of all Melakarta ragas. The second level of circles represents the two Madhyama (M) swaras and their respective halves of the Melakarta structure. The third level of circles represents the 12 Chakras of Carnatic music. Each Chakra represents a particular combination of Rishabha and Gandhara swaras in its particular half of the chart. Clicking on the name or circle for any of the 72 ragas will bring up a popup which contains information about that particular raga. The left side of the panel includes an image of the western scale equivalent of the particular raga. The right side contains a few popular compositions in the selected scale. On the top of the panel you can listen to a short ascending (Arohanam) and descending (Avarohanam) audio representation of the scale.