The ‘foundational swara’ of the Hindustani raga system – a ‘home tone’ to which the tanpura drone and ‘Na‘ tabla stroke are both tuned. While somewhat encompassing the Western idea of ‘root’, the concept of Sa extends far beyond this (e.g. traditional scholarship associates it with the cry of the peacock: India’s national bird). The swara’s full name derives from the Sanskrit ‘shad’ (‘six’) – with ‘shadja’ meaning ‘of the six organs of the body’, or ‘giving birth to six offspring’ (=Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, & Ni: the ‘sapta swara‘). Sa is also the only swara present in every raga (although some, such as Marwa, may omit it for long stretches). In some instances, the ‘scale-tone Sa’ of the melodic lead instrument may be set to a subtly different frequency to the ‘drone Sa’ of the tanpura (particularly in Dhrupad: see non-zero Sa).
सा (षड्ज)
Sa | Re | Ga | Ma | Pa | Dha | Ni
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• Sa Categories •
Sa: imperfect
Sa: detached
Mirror: S–M (‘palindromic’)
• Quirks: present by definition in all ragas (as well as all tanpura tunings, and the tabla’s ‘Na‘ stroke) • ‘achal‘ (immovable): although can still take different sruti (see ‘non-zero Sa‘)
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