स्वर

Svara derives from the Sanskrit root svar, which means both to sound and to shine: sound and light were not entirely distinct in early Sanskrit thought, both being forms of radiance, of something going forth from a source. In the Vedic chanting tradition, svara referred to the three primary accent tones of Vedic recitation: udatta (raised), anudatta (lowered), and svarita (circumflex), the system of pitch accents that distinguished meaning in the ancient Sanskrit liturgy. From this ritual root, svara expanded to mean any musical tone and eventually the seven positions of the Indian musical scale.

The seven svaras of Indian classical music are Sa, Re (or Ri), Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni — abbreviated from their full names Shadja, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata, and Nishada. Each name has a traditional association with the sound of an animal: Shadja (Sa) is the peacock, Rishabha (Re) is the chataka bird (a species of cuckoo-like bird), Gandhara (Ga) is the goat, Madhyama (Ma) is the crane or heron, Panchama (Pa) is the cuckoo, Dhaivata (Dha) is the frog, and Nishada (Ni) is the elephant. These associations are ancient and their original logic has been partly lost, but they survive as a pedagogical mnemonic in a tradition that learned its scales by imitating nature.

The seven svaras are not fixed pitches the way the notes of the Western scale are. Sa, the tonic, can be set at any pitch the performer chooses — the vocalist's or instrumentalist's comfortable range determines Sa, and all other notes are tuned in relation to it. Beyond this, five of the seven svaras (all except Sa and Pa, which are considered immovable) can appear in two or three variants — shuddha (pure or natural), komal (flattened), and tivra (sharpened) — giving a theoretical palette of twelve or more positions within the octave. A raga selects a specific combination of svaras in specific variants for its ascending and descending scales, and this selection is what defines the raga's melodic identity.

The svara system's relationship to the shruti system — the 22 microtonal intervals into which the Indian musical octave is theoretically divided — is one of the most complex topics in Indian musicology. The seven svaras are the large-scale positions; the 22 shrutis are the fine gradations within and between them, giving Indian classical music the capacity for microtonal inflection that distinguishes it from equal-tempered Western music. A vocalist who truly commands the svara system is not hitting fixed pitches but navigating a field of possibility within each svara position, shaping the tone in real time according to the raga's characteristic ornaments and inflections.