Music is the journey to freedom across that enigmatic space of mind which is beyond language and in the realms of feeling. Tagore points out that music glides the individual beyond personality to the impersonal space of universal beauty and experiences of nature as the personal/individual mind gets the feeling of assimilation in the infinite matrix of nature. Music is thus the brush to play with infinity.[“Antar-Bahir”].
 
Indian classical Ragas employ this appeal of music in charting an enthralling space of musical experience where the various rules of Raga and Rasa, Sur and Swara, combine together to capture a purity of creation that acts as the gateway to the endless spaces beyond all rules and regulation bequeathed by training and tradition. Hence the ten different classical Ragas “Bilawal”, “Kafi”, “Khambaj”, “Kalyan”, “Maroaw”, “Purabi”, “Ashawari”, “Bhairab”, “Bhairabi”, “Tori” are tuned to the many moods of nature – the transition of the soft light of dawn into the blazing afternoon sun and finally the dying light at the remains of the day. These fundamental Rags then generate multiple variations through the subtle change in scales [“Wadi”, “Samwadi” etc.] and tune [“That”] to capture the other moods in terms of seasonal changes. Hence conforming to the etymological meaning of “Raga”- “paint”.

The history of Raga thus charts a particular space in Indian culture – the worship of nature in religion. Music here is another form of the religious worship-the liberation of human spirits from the bonds of time and space.
 
 

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