Dear T K S Sir,
The basic gamakams are supposed to be 10 - Dikshitar writes, ''vINAgAna dashagamakakriyE''
in the song mInAkSi mE mudaM dEhi
Please refer this for the basic 10 gamakams: Gamakas and their 10 types
I think all these are very much present in both systems of music. But opinions differ. 
BTW, I came to know recently that Harmonium was banned in A I R for a few years!
But now, the keyboard with joy stick is able to bring out all the nuances in Carnatic music. :thumb:
Smt RR,
In the opening post I referred to this youtube segments. There they refer to this authoritative text
Sangita Ratnakara which supposedly describe 15 Gamakas (and applicable to Hindustani music as well). The ladies in the video describe each of them and then in subsequent video teachings, demo using Veena.
In practice though the complex Gamakas have virtually disappeared in Hindustani with the intro of Harmonium as one of key instruments. The result is that the certain inherent beauty of Hindustani music has lost some of its powerful attributes. Not trying to pull down Hindustani classical music which has its own glory in many other areas.
Good that joystick based improvisations exist, otherwise carnatic music cannot be played.
The western instruments have logarithmic keyboards and I assume same is true for harmonium too.
Here is a little arithmetic and ask you if my understanding is right.
Carnatic music is based not on logarithmic scale but on a rational ratio scale. An octave is based on the ratio 1:2
Pa is located through the ratio 2:3 and similarly for all the twelve swara sthanas..
An octave is a factor of two and there are twelve intervals . In a harmonium, and pianos, a key will be n times the pitch of the key immediately to the left of it. Therefore n (frequency) multiplied 12 times for 12 keys give 2.
Then n has to be the twelfth root of two which is about 1.06. Using this logarithmic division procedure, Pa (the 8th swara sthana) comes to the ratio of of not 1.5 but 1.498. Though it is very close a good musician will know this difference.
I do not know if the Harmonium is tunable when used in Hindustani music and do people tune them?
In any case gamakam usage is low in Hindustani music even though instruments like Sitar can render it.
When a Hindustani alapana is in progress I have heard people say it is sometimes hard to guess the raga right away. In carnatic music even with 2 or 4 swaras with gamakas it is possible to guess the raga. Not sure if you agree with this characterization.
