What is a raga?

Answer 1

A Raga is a partially precomposed matrix of melodic contours, tight enough to remain recognizable and loose enough to provide substantial creative freedom. Each Raga justifies itself as performance material because it makes a distinctive emotional statement. It can be described as a psycho acoustic hypothesis which relates qualifying melodic patterns to the associated quality of emotional responses. At each rendition, a musician works on this hypothesis and deploys his creativity in an attempt to maximize the probability of communicating the associated emotional idea.

Raga-s are not "composed" by any particular musician. Their origins are mostly indeterminate. They evolve over a period of time from a variety of source melodies as plausible triggers for well-defined categories of emotional responses. It is estimated that the melodic grammar of about a 1500 Ragas has been documented. The music-scape of each generation sees some Raga-s coming into circulation, and some going out of fashion. The core of commonly performed ragas remains around 200.

Answer 2

a raga is a melodic mode which is used in Indian classical music

A raaga is a rhythemic expression of a mood in Indian melody. It brings a soothing effect by combining vovels and consonants in a systematic way. there are many expressions in this category. To make this a success, one has to learn some basic concepts of vovels. so in all it is abstract art of making a sound to give a sort of pleasure if observed coolely.

Answer 3

In Indian music, the term "Raga" can be used to mean both the scale used or the piece of music created using the 'scale'.