Janya raga · parent: 27. Sarasangi

Nalinakanthi

● Confidence: high Last verified: 12 Oct 2026

Scale

Derived from the printed scale: shadava in both ascent and descent (6 notes up, 6 down); D are omitted (varjya) in both directions; vakra (zigzag) in the ascent; upanga (only notes of its parent).

Beginner's explanation

Nalinakanthi is a janya raga : it is derived from the melakarta Sarasangi (number 27), which means it takes its notes from that parent's scale. It uses only notes of its parent, so it is an Upanga raga.

Going up, its notes are S G3 R2 M1 P N3 S'; coming down, S' N3 P M1 G3 R2 S. Its ascent and descent each use 6 different notes (Shadava ). Notes of the parent that it leaves out are Varjya : D in both directions. The path is Vakra (zigzag) going up: some notes are visited out of straight order.

If Sa is C on a keyboard, the notes it uses fall on C, D, E, F, G, B. 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. Nalinakanthi is placed under Sarasangi (melakarta 27) by karnatik.com, the source for this page's parent. Of the parent's seven notes it does not use D1.

Other possible parents. Because Nalinakanthi leaves out some notes, 3 melakartas contain every one of its notes (Sarasangi, Dheerasankarabharanam and Naganandini). Books usually pick one by convention, and different books can pick differently.

Same notes, different raga. Bangala and Kedaram use exactly the same set of notes as Nalinakanthi but differ 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

• 27. Sarasangi
• Bangala
• Kedaram

Compare with another raga

Notable compositions (titles only)

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

How this was checked

• Sources agree: Scale of Nalinakanthi: ascent S G3 R2 M1 P N3 S'; descent S' N3 P M1 G3 R2 S. Sources: Royal Carpet: Carnatic Ragas; List of Janya ragas. The ascent and descent printed by karnatik.com match the scale in Wikipedia's table.
• Sources agree: Nalinakanthi is a janya of melakarta number 27, Sarasangi. Sources: Royal Carpet: Carnatic Ragas; Royal Carpet: Introduction to Carnatic Raga (the melakarta ragas). Parent per karnatik.com. Consistency check: every note of the raga is in the parent's scale (the parent's own scale is confirmed in two sources).