svara

Svara, in Indian classical music, refers to a musical pitch or note. The term derives from Sanskrit svara meaning sound or tone. Svara is a fundamental unit of melody in both Hindustani and Carnatic traditions, used to construct scales and ragas.

There are seven svaras: Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni. In Carnatic music these are named shadja, rishabha, gandhara, madhyama, panchama, dhaivata, and nishada; in practice they function as scale degrees relative to the tonic Sa. In Hindustani practice, some svaras may appear in altered forms: Re, Ga, Dha, and Ni can be komal (flat), Ma can be tivra (sharp), while Sa and Pa remain fixed as the tonic and fifth.

Svara is both the pitch itself and its melodic function within a raga or scale. Ragas are built from sequences and ornamentations of svaras, with specific rules for ascent (aroha) and descent (avarohana). Both vocalists and instrumentalists tune to svara with sruti-level precision, and intonation may shift with mood, tempo, and regional tradition.

In practice, svara are often described in relation to Western pitch classes as roughly corresponding to do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti with Sa as the tonic, though exact frequencies vary with rāga and performance context. This has led to diverse tuning practices across schools while preserving the essential role of svara in Indian music.