What is a Raag?

Have you seen our Raagabase – a list of raags in Indian Classical Music yet? A raag is the central idea of Indian classical music – the living melodic personality around which everything in a performance revolves.

The word raag comes from the Sanskrit root “ranj”, which means “to color”, “to delight”, or “to please”. A raag is meant to color the mind and emotions of the listener. Importantly, this doesn’t mean only “happy”. Raags can evoke serenity, devotion, longing, heroism, playfulness, and even complex bittersweet moods.

More than a scale

A raag is not just a scale, nor just a mode. It is:

• A specific set of notes (chosen from Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni).
• A characteristic ascending (Aaroha) and descending (Avaroha) movement.
• A set of important notes (Vaadi and Samvaadi) that are like key characters in a story.
• Typical phrases and patterns (Pakad or Chalan) that make the raag instantly recognizable.
• A particular mood (rasa) and often an associated time of day or season.

You can think of a raag as a combination of: scale + rules + personality + emotional color. Two raags may share the same notes but feel completely different because they treat those notes differently.

Jati – how many notes?

Raags are often classified by how many notes they use in Aaroha/Avaroha:

• Audav – 5-note structure (pentatonic).
• Shadava – 6-note structure (hexatonic).
• Sampoorna – 7-note structure (heptatonic).

A raag can be Audav in Aaroha and Sampoorna in Avaroha, etc., leading to types like Audav–Sampoorna or Shadava–Shadava.

Example: Raag Yaman

Consider Raag Yaman, a very popular evening raag. It uses all seven notes but with a teevra Ma. Its Aaroha and Avaroha are not merely straight lines; there are preferred phrases and characteristic curves. Singers can create many different melodies in Yaman, just as a jazz musician might create endless variations over the same set of chord changes.

Freedom in Indian classical music is huge – there are seven basic notes, but within each note there are micro-positions called shrutis (microtones). Combined with countless permutations of phrases, this gives a raag enormous expressive space. Yet, a raag is still bound by its identity: if you break too many rules, it stops being that raag.

An old Sanskrit definition says: “Ranjayati iti Raagaha” – that which colors or delights the mind is a raag. Pt. V. N. Bhatkhande adds that raag is “that particular arrangement of swars that invokes the feeling of ranjak-seel (aesthetic pleasure) in the minds of listeners.”