raagawheel

Mela 16Agni chakraM1

Chakravakam

The name is the number

Chakravakam

Chaca6kraka161 reversed16

English 'Ch' here is ca = 6. In the conjunct 'kra', tradition counts ka = 1 (not the cluster-final ra), giving 16.

Every mela name encodes its own number — how the katapayadi sutra works.

SSR1R1G3G3M1M1PPD2D2N2N2SS (upper octave)

SS (upper octave)N2N2D2D2PPM1M1G3G3R1R1SS

How to know it

Warm and gently melancholic — a pleading, early-morning tenderness beloved of film composers; its rasa is Karuna, Bhakti.

Janyas of Chakravakam

Hear it in songs

In film music

  • Albela Sajan Aayo Ri

    Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam · 1999

    Strictly in Ahir Bhairav — the Hindustani twin of Chakravakam — and based on a traditional bandish.

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