Melakarta number 54 · Brahma chakra

Vishwambari

Also written or called: Vamshavati, Vishvambhari, Viśvambari

● 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

Vishwambari is number 54 of the 72 melakarta ragas , the parent ragas from which many other ragas are derived. It belongs to the Brahma Chakra (the ninth of 12). Its Ma is M2 (prati madhyama) , so it sits in the second half of the list (numbers 37 to 72).

Going up, its notes are S, R1, G3, M2, P, D3, N3 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, B♭, B (0, 1, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11 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.

In practice this raga is often listed under the name Vishvambhari.

A bit deeper

How the number gives the notes. Number 54 is in chakra 9 (Brahma). The chakra fixes the pair of Ri and Ga (R1, G3), and the raga's place within the chakra (sixth of 6) fixes the pair of Dha and Ni (D3, N3). Ma is M2 because 54 falls in the second 36. This is exactly the rule this site uses to generate all 72 scales.

Counterpart and neighbours. Number 18, Hatakambari, has the same notes with M1 in place of M2. The other five ragas of the Brahma chakra (Dhavalambari, Namanarayani, Kamavardhini, Ramapriya, Gamanashrama) 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, "vi" and "śva", stand for 4 and 5, and read in reverse that gives 54. One of these syllables begins with a joined consonant cluster, and for this name the first consonant of the cluster is the one that counts. The CarnaticStudent pocket guide lists this name among those that need such a special reading.

Other names. Sources also give these names or spellings: Vamshavati, Vishvambhari, Viśvambari.

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 rarely. 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

• 18. Hatakambari
• 49. Dhavalambari
• 50. Namanarayani
• 51. Kamavardhini
• 52. Ramapriya
• 53. Gamanashrama

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 #54 Vishwambari: S R1 G3 M2 P D3 N3 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: Vishwambari is melakarta number 54, 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.