The Raga is, as the wise declare, the sequence of musical notes and the play of sound which delights the hearts of men.

"A Raga is an aesthetic projection of the artist's inner spirit; it is a representation of his most profound sentiments and sensibilities, set forth through tones and melodies. But the notes of a Raga, by themselves have no vitality or force. The musician must breathe life into each Raga as he unfolds and expands it. A characteristic of the Raga, impossible to describe but brought to it by the performing artist, is the prana_the life. Through guidance of the Guru, and by his own talent and genius, the musician learns how to make the bare notes vibrate, pulsate, come alive."
(from 'My Music, My Life' - Pandit Ravi Shankar)

As for a slightly practical aspect, a Raga must belong to a scale, and, only those notes found in that particular scale pattern can be used in the given Raga. There are ten parental scales. Originally there were seventy two parental scales, a foundation that has not seen any change as far as the South Indian Classical music in concerned. In the North Indian Classical music, these scales are called Thaat. One can imagine the number of combinations and compositions that can come out of these seventy two scales. Out of the myriad possibilities, only several hundred Ragas are in use today. It is evident why the artist's search does not end in one life, and the thirst is carried forward from life to life, from generation to generation.

There is a saying in Sanskrit, "ranjayati iti raagah" - that which colours the mind is the Raga. A Raga is the melodic framework, established by tradition or born and inspired in the spirit of a master-musician. The beauty of a Raga leads the listener to a serene and peaceful frame of mind and brings him pure joy.

Samaya: There is a tradition of rendering a Raga within a time-frame (samaya), because Ragas have hours and sometimes seasons prescribed to them. For example, Yaman is an evening Raga, Darbari is rendered at night, Todi, in the morning and Brindavani Sarang in the afternoon. It is believed that to make the most of the tones and the notes, to be most creative with the given sounds of a Raga, the time-laws of the Raga help. In fact, most musicians would say that it is a must to follow this. Keeping the time in mind is believed to provide the right psycho-physical ambiance for original creation. Or, we can also say, that time has its occult impact on us, to the artist and the listener, and we tune ourselves with greater ease to a certain level of vibration and awareness at certain times.

Dhyana: It is said that each Raga has a dhyana, a meditative presence, associated with it. It is not difficult to accept that Ragas have life in them. Or, for those who think deeper, they can well understand if we say that every Raga has a soul, a life and a journey. A Raga is eternally becoming, blossoming out into new vivid forms through the musician.

'Sa' is like the cry of the peacock,
'Re' is like that of the bull,
'Ga' is like the b;eating of the goat
and 'Ma' like the call of the crane,
the cuckoo sings in Spring with the sound of 'Pa'
'Dha' is like the neighing of the horse
and 'Ni' like the trumpeting of the elephant.

All these interesting derivations of the musical interevals were devised by old scholars, who realised that the cries of many animals are amde up of two distintct notes. If the lower note is placed as 'Sa', then the different intervals can be determined from the different animal cries.

In the beginning of British rule , Classical Music was pushed to the background, until towards the middle of the twentieth century when two illustrious musicians gained prominence. They were Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar and Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande.

Pandit V.N. Bhatkhande was an exceptional musicologist and he established as many schools of music as he could. He also realised that education was no more complete without books, even in the field of music. For the first time, he promoted mass education in music through his books.







Pandit V.D. Paluskar, on the other hand, spread the charm of music through his concerts, and successfully nade an impact on the masses. Among many others, these two artists revived the ancient art form and encouraged the spread of North Indian music.