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Janya raga · parent: 10. Natakapriya

Sindhubhairavi

Confidence: medium Last verified:

Scale

Derived from the printed scale: sampurna in both ascent and descent (7 notes up, 7 down); vakra (zigzag) in both directions; bhashanga (borrows R2 and D1, outside its parent).

Beginner's explanation

Sindhubhairavi is a janya raga : it is derived from the melakarta Natakapriya (number 10), which means it takes its notes from that parent's scale. It also uses notes from outside the parent (R2, D1), which makes it a Bhashanga raga: those notes are foreign notes to the parent scale.

Going up, its notes are S R2 G2 M1 G2 P D1 N2 S'; coming down, N2 D1 P M1 G2 R1 S N2 S. Its ascent and descent each use 7 different notes (Sampurna ). The path is Vakra (zigzag) in both directions: some notes are visited out of straight order.

If Sa is C on a keyboard, the notes it uses fall on C, D♭, D, E♭, 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. Sindhubhairavi is placed under Natakapriya (melakarta 10) by karnatik.com, the source for this page's parent. Of the parent's seven notes it does not use D2.

A borrowed note. Sindhubhairavi uses R2 and D1 although its parent has a different R and 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. Ghanta uses exactly the same set of notes as Sindhubhairavi but differs in the path, the ornaments or the phrases.

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 301 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

The twelve swarasthanas. Where two names share a row, they are the same pitch.
#Semitones above SaShort nameFull name
10SShadja
21R1Shuddha Rishabha
32R2 = G1Chatushruti Rishabha = Shuddha Gandhara
43R3 = G2Shatshruti Rishabha = Sadharana Gandhara
54G3Antara Gandhara
65M1Shuddha Madhyama
76M2Prati Madhyama
87PPanchama
98D1Shuddha Dhaivata
109D2 = N1Chatushruti Dhaivata = Shuddha Nishada
1110D3 = N2Shatshruti Dhaivata = Kaishiki Nishada
1211N3Kakali Nishada

Related ragas

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.

Annamacharya

Purandara Dasa

  • Kshirabdi Kannige Adi·Kannada
  • Ninyako Ninna Adi
  • Tamburi Mittidava Adi

How this was checked

  • Partly agree: Scale of Sindhubhairavi: ascent S R2 G2 M1 G2 P D1 N2 S'; descent N2 D1 P M1 G2 R1 S N2 S. Sources: Royal Carpet: Carnatic Ragas; List of Janya ragas. The two sources differ; see Variations & debates.
  • Sources agree: Sindhubhairavi is a janya of melakarta number 10, Natakapriya. Sources: Royal Carpet: Carnatic Ragas; Royal Carpet: Introduction to Carnatic Raga (the melakarta ragas). Parent per karnatik.com. The raga borrows R2 and D1 from outside the parent, which is what bhashanga means.

References for this page

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