Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.5

c6.5

It may be remarked that a greater part of what now passes under the name of classical music, at one time or other, belonged to the world of *deśi*, or folk music, and which being refined and affiliated to the rules and system of the traditional classic music have contributed to its growth and development. Materials are very scanty for tracing the processes by which rāgas evolved in their present forms, characters and classifications. It is certainly difficult to contend that the rāgas as understood to-day, had evolved and were recognized as such, at the time² when the *Nāṭyaśāstra* attributed to Bharata was compiled;³ though there would be nothing improbable in the supposition that