melakartan.
/ˌmeɪləˈkɑːtə/, U.S. /ˌmeɪləˈkɑrdə/ Indian Music.
In Carnatic music: a grouping of ragas.
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1914 A. H. F. Strangways Mus. Hindostan v. 139 The high-sounding names of the seventy-two South Indian melakartas are arranged on a plan so that those who know the key of it can tell at once from the name what the constitution of the particular melakarta is.
1957 New Oxf. Hist. Music I. iv. 215 The universal south Indian system, that of the melakartas which may be said to be a modified continuation of the ancient arrangement in jâtis... Anyone who knows the codeword can tell at once..what place the râga occupies in the melakarta scheme.
1980 New Grove Dict. Music IX. 97/2 When Venkaṭamakhi propounded the scheme of 72 melakarta in Caturdaṇḍi prakāśika he gave names only to those melakarta needed for ragas in use in 17th-century Tanjore.
1991 Hindu (Madras) 6 Dec. 22/1 Of the 72 melakarta ragas, one shruti appeases one melakarta.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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