Raag or Raga or Raaga is not just a combination of swars but its also a melody that has been associated with the swars. There are in all 12 swars komal and teevra and according to the basic rules of a raag we have to have minimum of 5 swars in the aaroha and avroha. There can be different combinations of swars, different orders of swars, there can be different aarohas and avrohas which gives rise to a extremely high number of raags. However, since raag is not just a mere combination of notes, the number becomes limited but still high. Just looking at the structure of a raag is not enough to have complete knowledge of it. It becomes immensely important that we hear how the raag sounds. Raagabase, is unique in the aspect that it lets the user hear a audio of each raag. Typically a raag has an aaroha (ascent), avroha (descent), pakad (note combinations), vaadi (main swar), samvaadi (second to main swar), jaati, bhaav etc. However there are certain raags where only chalan is defined, with the chalan, one can create multiple aaroha and avrohas and hence the aaroha and avrohas are not defined.

There are around 500 raags that are sung today. Some are called anwat (uncommon) some are aprachalit (unpublished). However there are around 150 raags that are sung very commonly. This Raagabase intends to satiate a classical music fan with providing as much information of as many raags as possible. Right now there are 355 raags in the Raagabase but this number will increase gradually. The raagabase only encapsulates the raags that are present in North Indian Classical Music. This includes raags that are originally from Carnatic Classical Music but have found their way in North Indian Classical Music. If you wish to provide an audio file for any of the raag or if you have any questions about any raag please do not hesitate to email us.

A new feature was added to the Raaga Base which lets a user search the raag in the raagabase based on specific notes. Please visit the Raaga Finder page to use the tool.

Note : The raagabase was last update on 06 August 2008 11:57:40 EST. New entries added within last 30 days are marked by ^*. New entries added within 90 days are marked by ^*