Hindustani raga
Raga with Marwa and Todi colours.
Your guide to Madhukali
New to classical music — moods, stories, film songs and simple listening.
Press play to hear the notes of Madhukali, rising then falling.
Karuna. Traditionally heard at evening.
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Think of a raga as more than a scale: a set of rules and a personality. Madhukali has its own notes, its own favourite phrases, its own time of day and its own mood, the way a person has a recognisable voice and way of talking.
Madhukali sounds mostly bright, with a few shadowed notes that add a bittersweet tint. Its emotional colour is tenderness and sorrow, the feeling of a sad song that still comforts you. Traditionally it is traditionally performed in the evening, because Indian musicians believe each raga matches the feeling of a certain hour or season.
Raga with Marwa and Todi colours. The beauty of Madhukali comes from patience: a good performer doesn't rush through the scale but lingers, bending into notes and letting each phrase breathe, so the mood builds slowly until it fills the room.
Listening exercise: Try this: press "Full scale" above, then open one of the recordings below. In the first few minutes, see if you can hear the melody circling back to Sa. Once you catch it, you've started to recognise Madhukali.
Hindustani ragas mostly developed through oral tradition, passed guru to disciple. Medieval treatises such as Sangita Ratnakara (13th c.) and the later Raga-Ragini systems grouped them into 'families'.
In the early 20th century, V. N. Bhatkhande organised Hindustani ragas into ten thaats (parent scales). Madhukali is classified under Todi thaat. The thaat is a modern classification, not necessarily the raga's historical origin.
Each gharana (school) interprets ragas slightly differently, so a raga's phrasing has kept evolving through the 19th and 20th centuries, and further through recordings and radio.
Looking for more history…
Arohana (ascent) · 6 notes
S G M# P d N S'
Avarohana (descent) · 7 notes
S' N d P M# G r S
Synthesised with Sa = A3. A real performance uses gamakas, meends and phrasing that a bare scale can't capture.
| Swara | Interval from Sa | Western (Sa = C) |
|---|---|---|
| Sa | Unison | C |
| Komal Re | Minor 2nd | C# |
| Shuddh Ga | Major 3rd | E |
| Tivra Ma | Augmented 4th | F# |
| Pa | Perfect 5th | G |
| Komal Dha | Minor 6th | G# |
| Shuddh Ni | Major 7th | B |
Jati (Shadava–Sampurna). The ascent uses 6 distinct notes and the descent 7. Audava = 5, Shadava = 6, Sampurna = 7.
Krama (straight) movement. Notes are taken in order going up and coming down.
Parent scale. Todi thaat: Komal Re, Ga, Dha with tivra Ma. Equivalent to Carnatic Shubhapantuvarali.
Time (Evening). Sung at twilight or evening (roughly 4–9 PM), when sandhi-prakash and Kalyan-family ragas are favoured.
Karuna
Compassion, pathos and sorrow.
Each link opens a YouTube or Spotify search for this raga by the instrument or artist.
These ragas use exactly the same notes, though their phrasing and ornaments differ.
Same notes, but a different character because of emphasis, movement and phrasing.
Madhukali is traditionally sung: Evening.
Ragas that sound most like Madhukali, and how to tell them apart.
No well-known Hindi film song is confidently attributed to this raga yet.
No regional film song is confidently attributed to this raga yet.
Film songs often take liberties with a raga, so treat these as "based on" rather than strict renditions.
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Notation: Hindustani komal notes are lowercase (r g d n), M# = tivra Ma, ' = upper octave. Carnatic numbers mark swara variants (R1, G3, …).