Reference

API documentation

All endpoints are static JSON files. No authentication, no rate limiting, no SDK required. Fetch them with anything that speaks HTTP.

Endpoints

Path	Returns	Sample
/ragas/<SLUG>.json	One raga record (e.g. yaman, bhairavi, shankarabharanam).	/ragas/yaman.json
/index.json	Compact array of every raga slug. Use for autocomplete.	/index.json
/all.json	Every full record in one file.	/all.json
/by-system.json	{ hindustani: [slugs], carnatic: [slugs] } map.	/by-system.json
/thaats.json	The 10 Hindustani thaats with descriptions.	/thaats.json
/melakartas.json	The 72 Carnatic melakarta ragas (parent scales).	/melakartas.json

Base URL: https://ragas.oriz.in · also available at https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/oriz-org/ragas-api@main

Record schema

Each /ragas/<SLUG>.json file returns one record:

type Raga = {
  slug:       string;             // e.g. "yaman", "shankarabharanam"
  name:       string;             // canonical name in Latin script
  alt_names:  string[];           // alternate spellings / regional names
  system:     "hindustani" | "carnatic";
  thaat:      string | null;      // Hindustani parent thaat, null for Carnatic
  melakarta:  number | null;      // Carnatic parent melakarta (1..72), null for Hindustani
  arohana:    string;             // ascending scale, sargam notation
  avarohana:  string;             // descending scale, sargam notation
  vadi:       string | null;      // most-emphasized note
  samvadi:    string | null;      // second-most-emphasized note
  time:       string | null;      // performance time (mostly Hindustani)
  rasa:       string | null;      // dominant emotional mood
  notes:      string;             // free-text description (may be empty)
}

Hindustani vs Carnatic

Indian classical music has two major systems, and they classify ragas differently:

Hindustani (North Indian) uses the thaat system: 10 parent scales (Bilawal, Khamaj, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi, Kalyan, Marwa, Poorvi, Todi, Bhairav). Each raga is assigned a thaat. Time of day matters: morning, evening, night ragas. Set system: "hindustani", thaat: <name>, melakarta: null.
Carnatic (South Indian) uses the melakarta system: 72 parent scales numbered 1–72. Janya ragas (derived) inherit the parent melakarta number. Time-of-day is less rigid. Set system: "carnatic", melakarta: <1..72>, thaat: null.

See /thaats.json for the 10 thaats and /melakartas.json for the 72 melakartas.

Sargam notation

Arohana and avarohana use the 7-svara sargam: S R G M P D N (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni). Komal (flat) notes are marked with a trailing lowercase letter or symbol; tivra (sharp) Ma is sometimes M' or Ṃ. Higher-octave notes are marked with ' or a dot above (rendered as Ṡ). Spacing is preserved as in the source.

Errors

The only possible error is 404 — unknown slug. There is no authentication, no rate limit, and no quota, so 401/403/429 cannot occur. CORS is wide open on both origins.

License

Code (scripts/, build tooling): MIT
Data (ragas/, *.json): CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikipedia) and MIT (OpenRaga seed schema)

Attribution: "Source: Wikipedia List of Hindustani / Carnatic ragas; OpenRaga/ragajson."