in a sense it is no different from a lay person humming a tune without necessarily comprehending its musical form...
Vijay, how I wish it is just that way. I know what you are saying that at some level what is going on is 'no different'. May be so, but substantially at different magnitudes. Most people can hum a tune that they hear, nicely or not ( except one chinese colleague of mine she just did not have that ability which was quite strange ). It comes naturally without thinking about it. Using Suji's words, people can be a good parrot. But once you bring an instrument in to the picture and having the same ability is a pretty high achievement in itself. I just can not do it yet. One still have to train their hands, fingers and blowing which are the external counter parts to the vocal chords. It is quite fantastic that in some people that works in the same natural way.
I am not sure if you necessarily need individual swara breakdown for a great and creative alapana. ( though it may be very rare that an established musician may not have the individual swara knowledge.) If one believes that raga came first and then came its analysis into scale, swara etc. then theoretically raga should be describable, playable and demonstratable by directly translating ideas into raga music. Niraval might fall into the same picture. Kalpanaswaram singing by the very definition requires that swara breakdown but that is just the way it is. People will not accept it if you substitute your own solfa symbols or other sounds instead of sa ri ga ma pa...
Going a bit off topic but to illustrate a great exception: One famous example of a great musician who did not know any notes but who just played guitar at the highest level similar to what we are talking about here was Django Reinhardt.(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt ). May be because of that lack of established musical 'swara' knowledge, he managed to play in a unique fashion which is now recognized as a distinct bANi. There are many in Pop and Rock world who claim they can not read music ( it is mostly used as a promotional item to their target audience since that conveys an air of born musical genius ) but here is a case of high quality original music that came out of someone who did not know how to read music.