Melakartha is a collection of fundamental musical scales (ragas) in Carnatic music (South Indian classical music). Melakartha ragas are parent ragas (hence known as janaka ragas) from which other ragas may be generated. 

The 72 Melakartha ragas are split into 12 groups called chakrās, each containing 6 ragas. The ragas within the chakra differ only in the dhaivatam and nishadam notes (D and N). The name of each of the 12 chakras suggests their ordinal number as well.