Niroshta

Niroshta is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is a pentatonic scale (audava/owdava rāgam). It is a derived scale (janya rāgam), as it does not have all the seven swaras (musical notes).

Niroshta literally means without the lips. If the lips do not meet / touch, then the notes Ma and Pa cannot be uttered. This scale does not use either note and hence the name. It is a very pleasing rāgam.

Structure and Lakshana

Niroshta is a symmetric pentatonic scale (audava-audava ragam in Carnatic music classification – audava meaning 'of 5') that does not contain madhyamam and panchamam. Its ārohaṇa-avarohaṇa structure (ascending and descending scale) is as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms):

The notes used in this scale are shadjam, chathusruthi rishabham, antara gandharam, chathusruthi dhaivatham and kakali nishadham. Niroshta is considered a janya rāgam of Shankarabharanam, the 29th Melakarta rāgam, though it can be derived from Kalyani by dropping both madhyamam and panchamam. Shankarabharanam is the Major scale of Western music.