Janya raga · parent: 20. Natabhairavi

Katyayani

○ Confidence: low (needs checking) Last verified: 12 Oct 2026

Scale

Derived from the printed scale: audava in both ascent and descent (5 notes up, 5 down); M and N are omitted (varjya) in both directions; bhashanga (borrows D2, outside its parent).

Beginner's explanation

Katyayani is a janya raga : it is derived from the melakarta Natabhairavi (number 20), which means it takes its notes from that parent's scale. It also uses a note from outside the parent (D2), which makes it a Bhashanga raga: that note is an foreign note to the parent scale.

Going up, its notes are S R2 G2 P D2 S'; coming down, S' D2 P G2 R2 S. Its ascent and descent each use 5 different notes (Audava ). Notes of the parent that it leaves out are Varjya : M and N in both directions.

If Sa is C on a keyboard, the notes it uses fall on C, D, E♭, G, A. This only shows where the notes sit: a raga is more than its notes, and its ornaments and phrases are not shown here.

A bit deeper

Its parent. Katyayani is placed under Natabhairavi (melakarta 20) by karnatik.com, the source for this page's parent. Of the parent's seven notes it does not use M1, D1 and N2.

A borrowed note. Katyayani uses D2 although its parent has a different D. In theory this is what makes a raga bhashanga. No single melakarta holds all of its notes, so its parent is the one it is felt to grow from, by convention.

Same notes, different raga. Shivaranjani uses exactly the same set of notes as Katyayani but differs in the path, the ornaments or the phrases.

Why start here? How likely you are to meet it

●●● (rating 3 of 3: 1 = met very often)

Rating 3 of 3 (editorial, a rough guide to how often you are likely to meet this raga): it is not among the top 100 ragas in karnatik.com's tally of compositions per raga (based on a list of 38,000 songs), so a beginner will meet it less often. A 1 means met very often and 3 means met rarely. It says nothing about how hard the raga is to sing, which depends on its ornaments and is not rated here. The tally counts songs by raga name and dates from 2011.

Characteristic features

Key notes, characteristic phrases and ornaments are not recorded here yet: they could not be confirmed from two sources, and this site leaves them out rather than guess.

Where the notes sit

Related ragas

• 20. Natabhairavi
• Shivaranjani

Compare with another raga

Notable compositions (titles only)

No compositions by composers covered on this site are listed yet.

How this was checked

• Sources disagree: Scale of Katyayani: ascent S R2 G2 P D2 S'; descent S' D2 P G2 R2 S. Sources: Royal Carpet: Carnatic Ragas; List of Janya ragas. The two sources differ; see Variations & debates.
• Sources agree: Katyayani is a janya of melakarta number 20, Natabhairavi. Sources: Royal Carpet: Carnatic Ragas; Royal Carpet: Introduction to Carnatic Raga (the melakarta ragas). Parent per karnatik.com. The raga borrows D2 from outside the parent, which is what bhashanga means.