In Carnatic music, a
mela is a
scale of
svaras in ascending order in a melodic unit forms the basis and gives birth to
ragas. While the concept of melas is said to have been introduced by
Vidyaranya in the 14th century, and a number of other musicologists before
Venkatamakhin had expounded on the subject, there was a lack of a standard work that systematically classified the ragas of classical music.
Vijayaraghava Nayak () commissioned Venkatamakhin to prepare such a treatise which led to the creation of the
Chaturdandiprakashika. The title translates to "the illuminator of the four pillars" (of music). It alludes to a system of four divisions of composition, namely alapana| (rhythmically free exposition of a
raga), (melodic inflection), geetam| (vocal composition in a raga) and
prabandha (a compositional structure). The work led to the creation of the melakarta system of classification and the formulation of the 72 mela (or parent) ragas that are the foundation of the classical music of South India today. In the early 20th-century,
Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, a musicologist from
Bombay, chanced upon the
Chaturdandiprakashika and used its melakarta system as the basis for the
thaat system that is currently used to organise and classify ragas in
Hindustani classical music. Some portions of the treatise are now lost. ==Notes==