The name is the number
Katapayadi sankhya
Long before checksums, Sanskrit scholars used consonants as digits. In the katapayadi scheme each consonant carries a value, and the melakarta names were chosen — sometimes padded — so that the first two syllables spell the raga’s own number in reverse. Kha (2) and ra (2) make Kharaharapriya mela 22. That is why Sankarabharanam formally wears a Dheera- (dha = 9, ra = 2 → 29), why Kalyani goes by Mecha-kalyani (ma = 5, ca = 6 → 65), and why Todi answers to Hanuma-todi (ha = 8, na = 0 → 8).
Khara…
Kha carries kha = 2, ra carries ra = 2; read the two digits backwards to get the mela number.
Open Kharaharapriya →The consonant tables
Two traps for the romanized reader: English “ch” is usually the unaspirated ca (= 6), and the dental ta-varga runs 6–9 then 0 — it does not repeat the retroflex 1–5. In conjunct clusters the last consonant usually carries the value, though a few traditional readings differ (each such case is noted on its raga’s page).
ka-varga
- ka1
- kha2
- ga3
- gha4
- ṅa5
ca-varga
- ca6
- cha7
- ja8
- jha9
- ña0
ṭa-varga (retroflex)
- ṭa1
- ṭha2
- ḍa3
- ḍha4
- ṇa5
ta-varga (dental)
- ta6
- tha7
- da8
- dha9
- na0
pa-varga
- pa1
- pha2
- ba3
- bha4
- ma5
ya · ra · la · va · śa · ṣa · sa · ha
- ya1
- ra2
- la3
- va4
- śa5
- ṣa6
- sa7
- ha8
The scheme is far older than the melakarta system — it dates astronomical and mathematical texts across a millennium of Indian scholarship. Govindacharya’s 18th-century sampurna-mela names simply put an ancient indexing trick to musical work.