Melakarta number 20 · Veda chakra

Natabhairavi

Also written or called: Nariritigowla

● Confidence: high Last verified: 12 Oct 2026

Scale

A sampurna melakarta: all seven notes in straight order, going up and coming down, with no omitted notes and no zigzag paths.

Beginner's explanation

Natabhairavi is number 20 of the 72 melakarta ragas , the parent ragas from which many other ragas are derived. It belongs to the Veda Chakra (the fourth of 12). Its Ma is M1 (shuddha madhyama) , so it sits in the first half of the list (numbers 1 to 36).

Going up, its notes are S, R2, G2, M1, P, D1, N2 and the upper S; coming down it uses the same notes in reverse. Like every melakarta it is Sampurna : all seven notes, in straight order, with no omitted notes and no zigzags.

If Sa is C on a keyboard, these notes fall on C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭ (0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10 semitones above Sa). 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

How the number gives the notes. Number 20 is in chakra 4 (Veda). The chakra fixes the pair of Ri and Ga (R2, G2), and the raga's place within the chakra (second of 6) fixes the pair of Dha and Ni (D1, N2). Ma is M1 because 20 falls in the first 36. This is exactly the rule this site uses to generate all 72 scales.

Counterpart and neighbours. Number 56, Shanmukhapriya, has the same notes with M2 in place of M1. The other five ragas of the Veda chakra (Jhankaradhvani, Keeravani, Kharaharapriya, Gaurimanohari, Varunapriya) share its Ri, Ga and Ma and differ only in Dha and Ni.

The name. The name encodes the number through the katapayadi sutra : the first two syllables, "na" and "ṭha", stand for 0 and 2, and read in reverse that gives 20. This works when the name is read with an aspirated ṭha (Naṭhabhairavi); the spelling without the "h" would give 10.

Other names. Sources also give these names or spellings: Nariritigowla.

Why start here? How likely you are to meet it

●●○ (rating 2 of 3: 1 = met very often)

Rating 2 of 3 (editorial, a rough guide to how often you are likely to meet this raga): karnatik.com's tally of compositions per raga (based on a list of 38,000 songs) places it in the top 100, with 100 compositions. 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

• 56. Shanmukhapriya
• 19. Jhankaradhvani
• 21. Keeravani
• 22. Kharaharapriya
• 23. Gaurimanohari
• 24. Varunapriya

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 melakarta #20 Natabhairavi: S R2 G2 M1 P D1 N2 S'. Sources: Melakarta; Royal Carpet: Introduction to Carnatic Raga (the melakarta ragas). Generated from the melakarta rules, then compared with the scale printed for this number in each source. Both match.
• Sources agree: Natabhairavi is melakarta number 20, as the katapayadi code of its name gives. Sources: Mela Pocket Guide (katapayadi and the 72 melakartas); Royal Carpet: Introduction to Carnatic Raga (the melakarta ragas). The number-to-name pairing agrees in both sources; the name needs a special reading of the code, as the pocket guide indicates.