🚧 Draft — not final. This page was auto-generated as day-one scaffolding for the project and still needs a human pass before it reads as finished. The blanks and placeholders below are intentional — someone who runs this project should fill them in and delete this notice.

Mohanam — across traditions

Raga one. A major pentatonic — five notes, no half-steps, no note that clashes with another — which is exactly why it shows up, under different names, in nearly every musical tradition on earth. The friendliest possible place to start listening across borders.

The scale

• Carnatic — Mohanam. Arohana: S R₂ G₃ P D₂ Ṡ · Avarohana: Ṡ D₂ P G₃ R₂ S. No madhyama (M), no nishada (N) — that's what makes it pentatonic.
• Western — major pentatonic. In C: C D E G A. The black keys of the piano are one too (starting on F♯) — which is why "only the black keys" always sounds vaguely raga-like.
• Hindustani — Bhoop (Bhoopali). Same five notes, a serious evening raga; the phrasing and the resting notes differ from Mohanam even though the scale is identical.
• Arabic / maqam — no exact pentatonic match (the maqam system leans on quarter-tones and different intervals), so this is the tradition to listen to for contrast — where the crossover stops.

What differs (the actual point)

The notes are the shared skeleton; the treatment is where traditions part ways — which note you rest on, the ornaments (gamaka in Carnatic, meend in Hindustani, none in a plain Western reading), the tempo, the emotional home. Same five notes, four different feelings.

Renditions (record and link — one minute each)

• Voice
• Piano
• Guitar
• GeoShred (for the gamaka the piano can't bend into)

Keep them side by side here so the comparison is one click, not one memory.