Marwa moves two swaras in opposite directions: Re falls to komal Re and Ma rises to tivra Ma. Its komal/tivra count is two, exactly like Kafi’s and Bhairav’s, and the three frames share almost nothing else — which is the clearest argument on this site against reading the count as a measure of similarity.
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 two swaras.
| Degree | Offset (semitones from Sa) | Swara |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | Sa |
| 2 | 1 | Komal Re |
| 3 | 4 | Ga |
| 4 | 6 | Tivra Ma |
| 5 | 7 | Pa |
| 6 | 9 | Dha |
| 7 | 11 | Ni |
Where it falls on the sitar
With Sa placed on C, every fret across all five strings whose pitch class is one of Marwa’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, 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 | Sa, Komal Re, Ga, Tivra Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa, Komal Re |
| 4th string (G3) | 0, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 14 | Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa, Komal Re, Ga, Tivra Ma, Pa, Dha |
| 3rd string (C4) | 0, 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 | Sa, Komal Re, Ga, Tivra Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa, Komal Re |
| 2nd string (G4) | 0, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 14 | Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa, Komal Re, Ga, Tivra Ma, Pa, Dha |
| 1st string (C5) | 0, 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 | Sa, Komal Re, Ga, Tivra Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa, Komal Re |
Because one swara falls and one rises, the position total stays at Bilawal’s forty-five: what the komal Re pulls into the span at the bottom, the tivra Ma pushes out at the top. On the C strings frets 1, 6 and 13 light while 2, 5 and 14 go dark; on the G strings only two positions move at all, 6 and 11 lighting where 7 and 10 were. No other frame here rearranges so much for so little change in count.
A frame, not a raga
This set of seven pitch classes matches nothing in this site’s 12-TET scale library — the comparison simply does not resolve, and saying so is more useful than forcing a Western name onto it. Marwa, Puriya and Sohini are conventionally grouped under this thaat and are distinguished in performance by which swaras they emphasise and how they treat Pa, several of them omitting it entirely. That is raga practice, not the frame.
Where to start
Approach it from Kalyan, which has the tivra Ma and leaves Re alone: adding komal Re on top of it is the whole distance between the two frames. Then look at Purvi, which is this frame with komal Dha added. Both comparisons are one swara wide, and playing them in that order through the fretboard explorer is the fastest way to hear a family rather than three unrelated tables.