Hindustani raga
Kauns-family pentatonic with tivra Ma.
Your guide to Madhukauns
New to classical music — moods, stories, film songs and simple listening.
Press play to hear the notes of Madhukauns, rising then falling.
Karuna. Traditionally heard at late night.
Film songs you may know ↓New to classical music?
Think of a raga as more than a scale: a set of rules and a personality. Madhukauns 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.
Madhukauns sounds soft and wistful, in a mood closer to a Western minor key. Its emotional colour is tenderness and sorrow, the feeling of a sad song that still comforts you. Traditionally it is traditionally performed in the late night, because Indian musicians believe each raga matches the feeling of a certain hour or season.
Kauns-family pentatonic with tivra Ma. The beauty of Madhukauns 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 missing Re. Once you catch it, you've started to recognise Madhukauns.
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). Madhukauns 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) · 5 notes
S g M# P n S'
Avarohana (descent) · 5 notes
S' n P M# g 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 Ga | Minor 3rd | D# |
| Tivra Ma | Augmented 4th | F# |
| Pa | Perfect 5th | G |
| Komal Ni | Minor 7th | A# |
Omitted (varjya) swaras: Re, Dha.
Jati (Audava–Audava). The ascent uses 5 distinct notes and the descent 5. 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 (Late night). Sung during the night prahars (roughly 9 PM–3 AM). Night ragas often stress the upper tetrachord (uttaranga).
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.
Madhukauns is traditionally sung: Late night.
Ragas that sound most like Madhukauns, and how to tell them apart.
Ragas from the same family or named after Madhukauns, such as Yaman and Yaman Kalyan. They are related but each has its own rules.
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, …).