Kafi keeps five of Bilawal's seven swaras exactly where they were and flattens two: Ga drops to komal Ga, and Ni drops to komal Ni. That is the entire difference, and it is computed rather than described — both thaats' offset arrays agree at every scale-degree slot except those two, and the count of disagreements is Kafi's komal/tivra number.
The seven swaras, from Sa
Declared as semitone offsets from Sa, then read through the same fixed chromatic-to-sargam table Bilawal used — the classification frame's seven available positions, not a raga's actual phrasing.
| Degree | Offset (semitones from Sa) | Swara |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | Sa |
| 2 | 2 | Re |
| 3 | 3 | Komal Ga |
| 4 | 5 | Ma |
| 5 | 7 | Pa |
| 6 | 9 | 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 Kafi'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, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15 | Sa, Re, Komal Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Komal Ni, Sa, Re, Komal Ga |
| 4th string (G3) | 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15 | Pa, Dha, Komal Ni, Sa, Re, Komal Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Komal Ni |
| 3rd string (C4) | 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15 | Sa, Re, Komal Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Komal Ni, Sa, Re, Komal Ga |
| 2nd string (G4) | 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15 | Pa, Dha, Komal Ni, Sa, Re, Komal Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Komal Ni |
| 1st string (C5) | 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15 | Sa, Re, Komal Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Komal Ni, Sa, Re, Komal Ga |
Fret 3 is the tell on the C strings: Bilawal has nothing there (Ga sits at fret 4), while Kafi lights it for komal Ga. The same one-fret drop shows up at fret 10 on the C strings for komal Ni. On the G strings the same two drops appear one position earlier in the pattern, since Pa rather than Sa opens the string.
A frame, not a raga
Kafi is often introduced as the thaat behind lighter, folk-adjacent ragas, but that reputation belongs to specific ragas classified under it, not to the seven swara positions themselves. The thaat only fixes which notes are available; it says nothing about which phrases a rendition actually plays, and several ragas share this exact frame while sounding almost nothing alike. In 12-TET terms these seven pitch classes are what the scale library calls Dorian — a reference approximation that fixes the positions and says nothing about how a raga moves between them.
Where to start
Set this table beside Bilawal and find the two frets that moved — that comparison is the fastest way to hear what "komal" actually changes. Then check Bhairav, which also carries a count of two but flattens an entirely different pair, before running either set of swaras across the fretboard explorer.