Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c5.25

c5.25

Mr. Fox Strangways defines rāga as “an arbitrary series of notes characterized, as far as possible as individuals, by proximity to or remoteness from the note which marks the tessitura (general level of the melody), by a special order in which they are usually taken, by the frequency or the reverse with which they occur, by grace or the absence of it, and by relation to a tonic usually reinforced by a drone.” Mr. Popley paraphrases this definition in a simplified form: “Rāgas are different series of notes within the octave, which form the basis of all Indian melodies, and are differentiated from each other by the prominence of certain fixed notes and by the sequence of particular notes. We may perhaps find in the term ‘melody-type’ the best way to transcribe rāga in English.”²