What are Shrutis in Indian Classical Music? Why 22 are Not Enough
Ask how many shrutis there are and you will be told twenty-two. It is in the textbooks, it is on every website, and it has been repeated for centuries.
Nitin Amin's answer is that the number is inadequate. It was a reasonable approximation in its time and has been overtaken. The more interesting question is what your own ear can actually do.
What the Word Actually Means
"Shrutyante iti Shruti — that which you can decipher is the shruti."
So a shruti is not a fixed slot on a scale. It is a threshold of perception. Take a note, raise it very slightly, and reach the point where an ordinary listener says that sounds different now — you have moved by one shruti.
That definition makes the count a question about human hearing rather than about tradition.
▶ Watch it: The definition — shrutyante iti shruti — https://youtu.be/olLPLTi3hkU?t=3399 (56:39)
Where 22 Came From
The number has a real history. The Sangeet Ratnakar contains a chapter on the construction of the flute, giving distances between finger holes in angula — units of a finger's width. Those units carried musical information: Sa to Re was four units, Re to Ga three, because it was already understood that the gap from Re to Ga is smaller. Ga to Ma is a single semitone, and that was denoted as two shrutis.
The twenty-two came out of an experiment recorded in the old literature, the Sarana Chatushtya. And it is worth knowing which instrument produced it:
"
The tanpura is an aid. The tanpura is not a discovery. It was the veena which gave all this — the tanpura came much later."
▶ Watch it: The Sangeet Ratnakar, angula, and where twenty-two came from — https://youtu.be/f5jkewquROo?t=2481 (41:21)
Why 22 Is Not Enough
If a shruti is the smallest change a listener can detect, then physiology has something to say about the number. An untrained ear distinguishes roughly fifty-six distinct places between one Sa and the next — call it sixty.
"So technically, physiologically, naturally, there should be at least sixty shrutis. If that is the definition of shruti."
Twenty-two is not a description of what the ear does. It is an older approximation, and the case for moving past it is the same case any discipline makes when its instruments improve.
▶ Watch it: Fifty-six places, and why twenty-two falls short — https://youtu.be/76dnPmDs8BM?t=4063 (67:43)
The Ayurveda Comparison
"Twenty-two shrutis is like the kapha, vata, pitta of Ayurveda. Our modern medicine has gone much, much beyond that. We have to go beyond these approximations."
It is not a dismissal of the tradition. It is a claim about what a tradition is for. And there is a consistency argument underneath it — Indian musicians now talk fluently about C, D, E, F, G, A, B, about 440 hertz and cycles per second:
"If on one hand we embrace the entire C D E F G A B, and we still talk in terms of shruti — I think it is unfair."
▶ Watch it: The Ayurveda comparison, and the case for a common vocabulary — https://youtu.be/f5jkewquROo?t=2750 (45:50)
A Better Common Ground: Cents
If the old count no longer serves, what replaces it? The cent — because it is precise, shared, and checkable. The octave is divided into 1,200 cents. In equal temperament each semitone gets exactly 100. Sa to komal Re is 100; komal Re to shuddha Re another 100, putting shuddha Re at 200.
In the natural scale it does not: it sits at about 208.
▶ Watch it: Cents explained — 1,200 to the octave — https://youtu.be/olLPLTi3hkU?t=3428 (57:08)
How Fine Can Your Ear Actually Get?
Listener | Smallest change detectable |
An untrained ear | about 20 cents — sixty steps across the octave |
After some training and guidance | 5 cents |
A trained musician | 2 cents |
Exceptional | 1 cent |
"In one session, I can bring this twenty cents down to five cents. Just some training and suggestion can bring down this least count."
"If you are within five cents, you are not besura. But not besura to surila is a big journey."
▶ Watch it: The tolerance ladder — twenty cents, five, two, one — https://youtu.be/76dnPmDs8BM?t=4122 (68:42)
The Artist Who Told Him to Go Finer
When Nitin built his first electronic tanpura, twenty years ago, he set its least count to two cents. That seemed more than enough. He took it to Malini Rajurkar, with the harmonium player Arvind Thatte present — both mathematicians as well as musicians.
"Malini Tai said, I can decipher within one cent, so I want you to go down to one cent. I said that is not electronically possible, so I will not do it."
"I said, Madam, who will know the difference between two cents and one cent?
She said: I will."
▶ Watch it: Malini Tai, Arvind Thatte, and the one-cent argument — https://youtu.be/olLPLTi3hkU?t=3653 (60:53)
How Kumar Gandharva Located a Note
Before any of the measuring, there is an older method. A swara is found through its relationship to another swara — you locate the Gandhar such that it becomes the Pancham of something else. Each note is placed by the note it agrees with. Which produces a striking consequence:
"Kumar ji did not believe in Gujari Todi. He said Todi cannot happen without the Pancham, because I cannot find the Gandhar without the Pancham. So he never sang Gujari Todi."
Gujari Todi omits the Pancham. If that is how you find your Gandhar, then in a raga without a Pancham you have lost the reference that places it. His refusal was not a preference; it followed from his method.
"Wise men had their own. They did not speak about all this — but they knew all this."
The raga carries the evidence. In the Raga Parichay session on Bhoopal Todi:
"Because of the Pancham omitted, the komal Gandhar lost a bit of its sheen, and the komal Rishabh became more prominent."
▶ Watch it: Kumar Gandharva, Gujari Todi, and finding the Gandhar through the Pancham — https://youtu.be/f5jkewquROo?t=2750 (45:50)
▶ Watch it: What the missing Pancham does to Gujari Todi — https://youtu.be/QWw85z3IJro?t=380 (6:20)
Why the Number Matters Less Than You Think
Having argued that twenty-two is inadequate and sixty is closer, Nitin then makes the count itself unimportant. Once you listen closely enough, the shuddha swaras themselves shift from raga to raga — a note is not one place but a small region whose exact position the raga decides.
"How many shrutis are there? They are way more than twenty-two. Because we use way more than twenty-two places in all ragas combined."
"This shruti and all — it remains jargon if I am not able to get the right point which the raga needs. It can come only by experience. It cannot come by calculations."
▶ Watch it: Why the shuddha swaras themselves change from raga to raga — https://youtu.be/76dnPmDs8BM?t=2424 (40:24)
What This Means When You Sit Down to Practise
"Without having a proper tanpura, if somebody speaks about shrutis, it is humbug."
A well-tuned tanpura does not merely give you a Sa. It gives out the harmonics, and those harmonics are the swaras you are looking for. The Pancham comes out of the Shadja. So do the Gandhar, the Rishabh and the Nishad.
"All I have to do is listen to that and sing it. Simple — actually simple, if you can do it. The problem is we can't do it. And because we don't try."
"Sur sabke liye ek hi hai. Everybody is in sur — that is my philosophy. Somebody just has to show it to you. It is only a suggestion that works."
▶ Watch it: Why shruti talk without a proper tanpura is meaningless — https://youtu.be/76dnPmDs8BM?t=2770 (46:10)
SECTION 3: GLOSSARY
Term | Definition |
Shruti | The smallest change in pitch a listener can detect. From shrutyante iti shruti — a threshold of perception, not a fixed position. |
Cent | One 1,200th of an octave. Each equal-tempered semitone is 100 cents. Cents measure ratios, not frequencies. |
Sarana Chatushtya | The experiment in the old literature that produced the count of twenty-two, carried out on the veena. |
Sangeet Ratnakar | A foundational Sanskrit treatise, containing a chapter on flute construction giving hole spacings in angula. |
Least count | The smallest difference a person or instrument can reliably distinguish. Untrained, about 20 cents; a trained musician, 2. |
Besura / Surila | Besura is out of tune. Surila is genuinely in tune. Within five cents you are not besura — which is not the same as surila. |
SECTION 4: KEY TAKEAWAYS
● Shruti means the smallest pitch change a listener can detect — a threshold of hearing, not a slot on a scale.
● The count of twenty-two comes from the Sarana Chatushtya, carried out on the veena, recorded in treatises that measured flutes in angula.
● An untrained ear distinguishes about fifty-six to sixty places in an octave — so by shruti's own definition the number should be nearer sixty.
● Cents are a more useful common vocabulary: 1,200 to the octave, 100 to an equal-tempered semitone.
● Hearing improves fast with guidance: 20 cents untrained, 5 with training, 2 for a trained musician.
● Great musicians located notes by relationship, not calculation — Kumar Gandharva would not sing Gujari Todi because without the Pancham he could not place the Gandhar.
● The count matters less than the ear. The right position comes by experience, never by calculation.
SECTION 5: FAQ
What is shruti in Indian classical music?
A shruti is the smallest change in pitch a listener can perceive — shrutyante iti shruti, that which can be heard is a shruti. Raise a note slightly until an ordinary listener notices it has changed, and you have moved by one shruti. It measures perception rather than position, which is why the number depends on whose ear you are asking about.
Are there really 22 shrutis?
Twenty-two is the traditional count and it has a real source — the Sarana Chatushtya, carried out on the veena. But if a shruti is the smallest detectable change, the number does not match human hearing: an untrained ear distinguishes roughly fifty-six to sixty places in an octave. Nitin Amin's view is that twenty-two is inadequate rather than mistaken — a reasonable approximation for its time which, like the kapha-vata-pitta of early Ayurveda, has been overtaken by better measurement.
What is the difference between a shruti and a swara?
A swara is a named note of the scale, carrying pitch, tone and volume together. A shruti is much smaller — the finest pitch distinction the ear can make, so many shrutis fall between two swaras. A swara is not a single point either: its exact position shifts from raga to raga.
What is a cent, and why do musicians use it?
A cent is one 1,200th of an octave, which puts each equal-tempered semitone at 100 cents. Cents measure the ratio between two frequencies rather than the frequencies themselves, so the same figure applies in any key. Nitin argues cents are the sensible common ground for a conversation that currently mixes traditional shruti counts with Western note names and hertz.
How accurate is a trained musician's ear?
An untrained listener detects about 20 cents. With guidance that drops to around 5 — Nitin says a single focused session can achieve it. A trained musician works within about 2 cents, and a few artists distinguish 1 cent.
Can you learn shrutis from an app or a tuner?
Not on their own. A tuner shows frequency, and the differences that matter do not show up on most apps. More importantly, an app giving a single blended sound does not let you hear the individual strings of a tanpura and the harmonics coming off each one — and those harmonics are the swaras you are trying to find.
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