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86 ragas and devotional collections to return to. Browse by time of day or emotional colour, with recordings and classical sources close at hand.
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Showing 16 of 86 collections
Clear filtersThe defining raga of the Asavari thaat, an emblem of renunciation and inward resolve. A pentatonic ascent (omitting Ga and Ni) opens into a full descent coloured by komal Ga, Dha and Ni — grave, introspective, sung in the late morning.
Sources draw on Sangita Ratnakara, Natya Shastra, and Bhatkhande’s Sangeet Paddhati. Dosha mappings from Charaka Samhita / Ashtanga Hridaya.
A Carnatic-origin scale (the 26th melakarta) embraced in Hindustani music. Its shuddha lower tetrachord (S R G M) sounds bright and major, while komal Dha and Ni in the upper half turn poignant and yearning — a uniquely bittersweet morning mood.
A forenoon raga of the Asavari family with an earthy, folk-rooted character — both dhaivats appear in practice and its chalan is highly vakra, varying by gharana, so the scale rows are left unstated rather than over-specified.
Miyan ki Todi's Pa-varjit sister — the same komal Re, Ga, Dha around tivra Ma, but with Pa omitted in both directions, deepening the raga's austere pathos. Sung in the late morning.
A late-morning raga of the Asavari thaat, close kin to Asavari but with Ga omitted in ascent and a livelier movement. A staple of the second prahar; much loved for bhajan and kirtan of earnest supplication.
The quintessential karuna raga of the late morning and head of the Todi thaat — komal Re, komal Ga and komal Dha around tivra Ma, with Pa omitted in ascent. Its plaintive tenderness is proverbial; ragamala paintings show Todi charming deer with her veena.
Deeply emotive afternoon raga, widely performed for its devotional bhakti-shringara bhava. Kafi-family with audava aaroha, sampurna avaroha.
The definitive fourth-prahar raga of the Todi thaat — komal Re and Dha touched only in descent, tivra Ma blazing at its centre. Austere and inward, it carries the heat of late afternoon turning toward evening.
Afternoon raga of gentle reflection. Uses komal Ga (distinguishing from Patbihag) but shuddha Ni in ascent.
Head of the Marwa thaat, sung at sunset — komal Re and tivra Ma with Pa omitted entirely and Sa touched only sparingly, leaving the melody suspended without resolution. The classic dusk atmosphere of yearning and renunciation.
Late-night raga of viraha (longing in separation). Softly insistent, with the M-vadi carrying the weight of loneliness.
Carnatic melakarta 21 (Kiravani) adopted wholesale into Hindustani concert practice, especially by instrumentalists — the harmonic-minor scale. Its late-night placement is modern performance convention, not an old-text prahar assignment.
A pentatonic late-night raga on the Kafi thaat's komal Ga — Bhoopali's frame with the third flattened, turning calm into ache. Its codification is comparatively recent (it flowered in twentieth-century light-classical and film music), so time and vadi attributions are conventional rather than ancient — vadi/samvadi are left unstated here.
The definitive deep-night raga of the Mughal court tradition, attributed to Tansen. Slow, grave, and meditative; Kanada-family.
Sacred pre-dawn raga using BOTH shuddha and tivra Ma — creating characteristic emotional tension. Omits Pa. Among the most profound sandhiprakasha ragas.