Sapt literally means seven. It is quite simply the Indian classical music scale. It refers to the entire set of seven swars or notes of the Indian classical scale; shadaj (Sa), rishab (Re), gandhar (Ga), madyam (Ma), pancham (Pa), dhaivat (Dha), nishaad (Ni). There are mainly three such scales or saptak; mandra refers to the lower scale and notes are written with dots underneath them, madya to the middle scale and tar to the higher scale where notes are written with dots above them. It is similar to the Western octave although the eighth note is not counted since it is in the same pitch as the starting note. In actuality there are twelve notes in a given scale since Re, Ga, Dha, and Ni have equivalent flat or komal notes which are written with a line underneath them and Ma has an equivalent sharp or tivra which has a line above it, taking the total to twelve.