Module 2: A short history · Lesson 3

The 72-scale scheme

◐ Confidence: medium Last verified: 12 Oct 2026

A complete map of scales

In the 17th century a scholar named Venkatamakhin wrote the Chaturdandi Prakashika , a Sanskrit treatise that sets out a scheme for sorting ragas by their notes. It is the foundation of the Melakarta system, in which there are 72 parent scales, each with its own number.

Venkatamakhin worked at the court of a Nayak ruler in the 17th century (the ruler named in sources is Vijayaraghava Nayak, who reigned from 1633 to 1673). The treatise stayed in manuscript form and was printed only in the early 20th century.

Names and numbers

The scheme that is taught today was filled out in later centuries. A later treatise, the Sangraha Chudamani by Govindacharya, is credited with standardising the names and the organisation of ragas under the 72 parents. Its date is given as the late 18th century in the sources used earlier, but the NIOS Carnatic music textbook gives 1857 for Govindacharya’s revision. The NIOS book also says Dikshitar followed Venkatamakhin’s original scheme, whereas Tyagaraja and Syama Sastri followed Govindacharya’s. Roughly a century after Venkatamakhin, the katapayadi code began to be used to name the 72 so that a raga’s name itself tells you its number.

You will learn how that code works in the raga module. For now, notice that the scheme is a human construction: a tidy map laid over a living tradition, which is bigger than the map.

Why a map of 72?

The number is not magic; it comes from arithmetic. The notes that can change are the Ri, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni, and combining their possible forms in the allowed ways produces exactly 72 scales. The raga module shows you how.