Janya raga · parent: 64. Vachaspati

Saraswathi

● Confidence: high Last verified: 12 Oct 2026

Scale

Derived from the printed scale: audava in the ascent and shadava in the descent (5 notes up, 6 down); varjya: G and N in the ascent; G in the descent; upanga (only notes of its parent).

Beginner's explanation

Saraswathi is a janya raga : it is derived from the melakarta Vachaspati (number 64), 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 R2 M2 P D2 S'; coming down, S' N2 D2 P M2 R2 S. Its ascent uses 5 different notes and its descent 6. Notes of the parent that it leaves out are Varjya : G and N going up, G coming down.

If Sa is C on a keyboard, the notes it uses fall on C, D, F♯, G, A, 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. Saraswathi is placed under Vachaspati (melakarta 64) by karnatik.com, the source for this page's parent. Of the parent's seven notes it does not use G3.

Other possible parents. Because Saraswathi leaves out some notes, 2 melakartas contain every one of its notes (Hemavati and Vachaspati). Books usually pick one by convention, and different books can pick differently.

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 108 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

• 64. Vachaspati

Compare with another raga

Notable compositions (titles only)

Songs listed for this raga on karnatik.com by composers covered on this site. Lists are community-compiled, so a missing song does not mean it does not exist. Talas are as the source names them; no lyrics are reproduced.

Purandara Dasa

• Kodu Bega Divyamati Adi

Tyagaraja

• Anuragamule Rupaka

How this was checked

• Sources agree: Scale of Saraswathi: ascent S R2 M2 P D2 S'; descent S' N2 D2 P M2 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: Saraswathi is a janya of melakarta number 64, Vachaspati. 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).