Swara
The notes, or swaras, of Indian music are Shadjam, Rishabham, Gandharam, Madhyamam, Panchamam, Dhaivatam and Nishadam. Collectively these notes are known as the sargam. In singing, these become Sa, Ri(Carnatic) or Re(Hindustani), Ga, Ma, Pa, Da(Carnatic) or Dha(Hindustani), and Ni. ("Sargam" stands for "Sa-R(i,e)-Ga-M(a)"). Only these syllables are sung, and further designations are never vocalized. When writing these become, S, R, G, M, P, D, N. A dot above a letter indicates that the note is sung one octave higher, a dot below indicates a note one octave lower. A line below a letter indicates it is flat or komal, an acute accent above a letter indicates it is sharp or tivar. In some notation systems, the distinction is made with capital and lowercase letters. Natural is called shudda. Re, Ga, Dha, and Ni may be either shudda or komal; Ma may be either shudda or tivar and is then called tivra Ma. Sa and Pa are immovable (once Sa is selected), forming a just perfect fifth.
Sargam is the Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) equivalent to the western solfege, a technique for the teaching of sight-singing. Sargam is practiced against a drone and the emphasis is not on the scale but on the intervals, thus it may be considered just intonation.
In certain forms of Indian classical music and qawwali, when a rapid, 16th note sequence of the same note is to be sung, sometimes different sylables are used in a certain sequence to make the whole easier to pronounce. For example instead of "sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa" said very quickly, it might be "sa-da-da-li-sa-da-da-li" which lends itself more to a quick and light tongue movement.