Carnatic music
Tanjavur-style tambura
Concepts
Śruti Svara Rāga Tāḷa Mēḷakarta Asaṃpūrṇa Mēḷakarta
Compositions
Gītaṃ Svarajati Varṇaṃ Kr̥ti Kīrtana Rāgaṃ Tānaṃ Pallavi Tillana
Instruments
Melody Sarasvati Vīṇā Veṇu Nādasvaraṃ Goṭṭuvādyaṃ (Citra Vīṇā) Violin Percussion Mr̥daṅgaṃ Ghaṭaṃ Morsing Kanjira Thavil Drone Tambura Shruti box
Composers Glossary

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.^[1] It is a derived scale (janya rāgam), as it does not have all the seven swaras (musical notes), from the 60th Melakarta rāgam Neetimati.^[1]

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,^[1] 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):

• ārohaṇa : S R₂ M₂ P N₃ Ṡ^[a]
• avarohaṇa : Ṡ N₃ P M₂ R₂ S^[b]

This scale uses the notes shadjam, chatusruti rishabham, prati madhyamam, panchamam and kakali nishadam.

Earlier structure of this scale were as follows:^[1][2]

• Ascending scale : S R₂ M₂ P D₃ N₃ Ṡ^[c]
• Descending scale : Ṡ N₃ D₃ N₃ P M₂ R₂ S^[d]

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).^[1][2]

Hamsanadam's notes when shifted using Graha bhedham, yields two pentatonic rāgams, Gambhiranata and Bhupalam. Graha bhedham is the step taken in keeping the relative note frequencies same, while shifting the shadjam to the next note in the rāgam. For more details and illustrations of this concept refer Graha bhedham on Gambhiranata.

Hamsanadam has a few popular compositions:

• kalyANa rAmA by oottukkADu Sri vEnkaTAkavi
• Bantureethi Koluvu by Tyagaraja
• Niye Paramukham by Papanasam Sivan
• Kripanidhe by Muthiah Bhagavatar
• pADa vENDumE by Sri MM Dandapani Desikar
• Bharama Ee Baluni by G N Balasubramaniam
• Ezhiludai Hamsanaadham by Thanjavur Sankara Iyer