Alarippu ragam

[qwerty]

Alarippu is not based on any swaras. It's completely based on mridungam shollu/bola.
Then why does it have it's ragam as nattai if it doesn't contain any swaras

[rshankar]

I am not entirely sure of the references, but I remember hearing somewhere that originally, the sollus of the alArippu were sung (in nATTai, typically). Sometimes, there is a verse that is sung by the vocalist, even as the naTTuvanAr is reciting (not singing) the sollus for the alArippu. The rAga the verse is sung is not fixed.