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Hamsanadam (pronounced hamsanādam) is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is a pentatonic scale (audava rāgam, which means "of 5"), as it is sung in current days. It is a derived scale (janya rāgam), as it does not have all the seven swaras (musical notes), from the 60th Melakarta rāgam Neetimati.
Contents
Structure and Lakshana
Hamsanadam, as it is sung now-a-days, is a symmetric scale that does not contain gandharam and dhaivatam. It is called an audava rāgam, in Carnatic music classification (as it has 5 notes in both ascending and descending scales). Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure is as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms):
This scale uses the notes shadjam, chatusruti rishabham, prati madhyamam, panchamam and kakali nishadam.
Other structures
Earlier structure of this scale were as follows:
In the above, shatsruti dhaivatam is added in the scale compared to current usage (shadava scale with 6 notes in ascendinga and descending scale), with a vakra prayoga (zig-zag descending scale).
Popular compositions
Hamsanadam has a few popular compositions: