Asavari flattens three swaras, and all three sit above the fourth degree once you count from Ga upward: komal Ga, komal Dha, komal Ni. Re and Ma are untouched, which is what separates it from Bhairavi — one frame further along, where Re falls too.
The seven swaras, from Sa
Declared as semitone offsets from Sa, then read through the same fixed chromatic-to-sargam table every thaat on this site uses — the frame’s seven available positions, not a raga’s actual phrasing. Against the Bilawal reference this frame moves three swaras.
| Degree | Offset (semitones from Sa) | Swara |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | Sa |
| 2 | 2 | Re |
| 3 | 3 | Komal Ga |
| 4 | 5 | Ma |
| 5 | 7 | Pa |
| 6 | 8 | Komal Dha |
| 7 | 10 | Komal Ni |
Where it falls on the sitar
With Sa placed on C, every fret across all five strings whose pitch class is one of Asavari’s seven swaras — computed from the registry’s true open pitches and the instrument’s fifteen-fret board:
| String | Frets | Swaras |
|---|---|---|
| 5th string (C3) | 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15 | Sa, Re, Komal Ga, Ma, Pa, Komal Dha, Komal Ni, Sa, Re, Komal Ga |
| 4th string (G3) | 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15 | Pa, Komal Dha, Komal Ni, Sa, Re, Komal Ga, Ma, Pa, Komal Dha, Komal Ni |
| 3rd string (C4) | 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15 | Sa, Re, Komal Ga, Ma, Pa, Komal Dha, Komal Ni, Sa, Re, Komal Ga |
| 2nd string (G4) | 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15 | Pa, Komal Dha, Komal Ni, Sa, Re, Komal Ga, Ma, Pa, Komal Dha, Komal Ni |
| 1st string (C5) | 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15 | Sa, Re, Komal Ga, Ma, Pa, Komal Dha, Komal Ni, Sa, Re, Komal Ga |
Three flattened swaras add up to five more playable positions inside fifteen frets — fifty against Bilawal’s forty-five — because each downward move can pull a swara back into the span at the top of the board. On the C strings, frets 4, 9 and 11 go dark and 3, 8, 10 and 15 light. On the G strings the same three moves land differently again: 2, 4, 9 and 14 go dark while 1, 3, 8, 13 and 15 light, since Pa rather than Sa is what the open string sounds.
A frame, not a raga
Asavari, Jaunpuri and Darbari Kanada are all conventionally grouped under this thaat, and they sound nothing like one another: Darbari’s slow oscillation on komal Ga and komal Dha is the raga’s identity, and it lives in the movement between positions rather than in the positions themselves. That movement is exactly what a table of frets cannot show, which is why nothing here claims a thaat is a raga.
Where to start
Compare this frame against Bhairavi, which adds komal Re and nothing else: the two are one swara apart and the difference is audible immediately in the lower tetrachord. The same seven pitch classes appear in the 12-TET library twice, as Minor and as Aeolian — one set under two names, and a reference approximation either way. Then take the positions to the fretboard explorer.