Where do ragas come from? Delve into the histories of Hindustani ragas…
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• Raga Origins: Full List •
Snapshot summaries of how each raga came to be (see full pages for detail & sourcing: and get in touch if you have info to share!)
• Abheri Todi: Origins and current form unclear – presumably connected to the Carnatic Abheri.
• Abhogi: Imported from Carnatic music and absorbed into the Kanada raganga in the early 20th century – possibly first introduced by Abdul Karim Khan (1872-1937).
• Adana: Cited as an important raga in several 17th-century shastras – with Nayak Bakshu’s Hazar Dhrupad (c.1650) containing 35 Adana compositions, and Faqirullah’s Rag Darpan (1666) listing it as a combination of Kanada and Malhar [n.b. a raga of the same name is mentioned in Somantha’s Raga Vibhoda in 1609, but it is unclear if this form is related to the ‘main’ Adana lineage].
• Adarangi Todi: Current forms unclear – possibly connected to the ancient ‘Turusk’ lineage mentioned in the Sangita Ratnakara (C13th).
• Adbhut Kalyan: A Dagarvani favourite of unclear origins – Aminuddin Dagar reportedly conceptualised it as a variant of Khem Kalyan, while Uday Bhawalkar links it to the congruent Carnatic Niroshta.
• Adi Basant: An ancient Basant raga, likely one of the oldest of its raganga (‘Adi’ can mean ‘original’) – sometimes considered inseparable from Shuddha Basant.
• Ahir Bhairav: [coming soon]
• Ahir Lalit: Created by Ravi Shankar as a blend of Ahiri, Ahir Bhairav, and Lalit – devised in the 1950s, with a main album release in 1979.
• Ahiri: [coming soon]
• Ahiri Todi: [coming soon]
• Alhaiya Bilawal: [coming soon]
• Ambika Sarang: Invented by Agra vocalist Chidanand Nagarkar (1919-71) – supposedly inspired by a student’s persistent mistake while singing Shuddha Sarang.
• Amiri Todi: Created by Amjad Ali Khan in 1974, prompted by the untimely passing of Amir Khan the same year, mixing “two of my favourite ragas sung by Khansaheb: Shahana and Bilaskhani Todi“.
• Amirkhani Kauns: Created by Amir Khan shortly before his death in 1974, possibly as an ‘audav Vachaspati’ variant – reportedly performed at his last ever concert, along with the related Chandramadhu.
• Amrut Ranjani: Created by Ulhas Bapat (1950-2018) via an uttarang extension of Jog’s GmgS pakad – first released on his 2003 Swakrut album.
• Anand Bhairav: Origins unclear – a rare Bhairav variant with Bilawal elements.
• Anjani Kalyan: Created by Gwalior vocalist Ramashreya Jha ‘Ramrang’ (1928-2009) as a Kalyan-tinged variant of Madhuvanti.
• Annapurna: Created by Maihar bansuriya Rupak Kulkarni in the late 2010s, in honour of his grand-guru Annapurna Devi – he recently described it to me as “a mixture of Todi and Shree”.
• Antardhwani: Created by Shivkumar Sharma in the 1990s while retuning his santoor from one scale to another (although it is not known which they were), and developed with meditation in mind.
• Arun Malhar: Precise origins unclear – an ancient Malhar raga involving elements from Gaud Malhar, Shuddha Malhar, Bilawal, and Tilang.
• Asa Bhairav: A combination of Bhairav and Asa, an archaic Sikh form – origins unclear, but most closely associated with Allauddin Khan’s Maihar lineage.
• Asavari: [coming soon]
• Bageshri: [coming soon]
• Bageshri Bahar: A direct combination of Bageshri and Bahar – precise origins unclear, but most closely associated with Bhimsen Joshi and Kishori Amonkar.
• Bahaduri Todi: Cited in Faqirullah’s Rag Darpan (1666) as a creation of Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat – with modern forms of the raga displaying considerable cross-gharana variance.
• Bahar: [coming soon]
• Bairagi: Created by Ravi Shankar in 1949 – first unveiled via an article and bandish published in Sangeet Magazine that year.
• Bairagi Todi: Devised by Ravi Shankar as a Todi-ang offshoot of his own Bairagi – formally unveiled on his 1988 Spirit of India album.
• Bangal Bhairav: Origins unclear – presumably a regional Bengali variant of the Bhairav lineage.
• Baradi: [coming soon]
• Barwa: Associated with the Agra gharana, involving elements from Kafi, Sindhura, and Desi – said to have emerged from folk melodies before becoming semi-formalised in the 18th century.
• Basant: [coming soon]
• Basant Bahar: [coming soon]
• Basant Mukhari: A complex lineage involving S.N. Ratanjankar’s import of the Carnatic Vakulabharaman in the 1950s – but also connected to the prakriti Hijaz, a near-extinct raga itself derived from a Middle-Eastern maqam.
• Basanti Kanada: [coming soon]
• Bhairav: [coming soon]
• Bhairav Bahar: [coming soon]
• Bhairavi: Mentioned in Damodara’s Sangita Darpana (1625), although the Bhairavi of that time took the swaras of today’s Kafi (hence the Carnatic ‘Natabhairavi’) – with dha being flattened later that century, and re some time in the century after. The Sangita Sar (c.1800) lists the SrgmPdnS swara set as ‘Shuddha Bhairavi’, suggesting that the raga had already started to adopt chromatic ‘mishra’ tendencies by the turn of the 19th century. Featured in numerous ragmala paintings, often listed as a ragini of Bhairav (see examples from throughout the 17th-18th centuries).
• Bhankari: Created by Gwalior vocalist Ramashreya Jha ‘Ramrang’ (1928-2009) as a “tantalizing melody blending facets of Bhatiyar, Jait, Bibhas, and Deshkar”.
• Bhatiyar: [coming soon]
• Bhatiyari Bhairav: [coming soon]
• Bhavani: Has long been intertwined with the ancestral Gorakh Kalyan lineage (Bhavani may be the source of of a precursor raga known as ‘Gorakhi’) – but the modern form seems to have been resurrected by Gwalior vocalist Narayanrao Vyas (1902-1984).
• Bhavmat Bhairav: Created by Kumar Gandharva as a blend of Lalit and Bhairav – exact date uncertain, but, he performed it multiple times in the 1970s.
• Bheem: [coming soon]
• Bhimpalasi: [coming soon]
• Bhinna Shadja: Derived from the ancient Shadja-Grama base scale (‘Bhinna’ means ‘differentiated’, i.e. ‘differentiated from Shadja-Grama’), and mentioned in numerous shastras – notably including Matangamuni’s Brihaddeshi (~C8th) and Sarangdeva’s Sangita Ratnakara (C13th), which describes the raga in remarkably similar terms to its modern incarnation (“Bhinna is differentiated with reference to four factors: sruti, jati, swara, and purity…”). Also see Kaushik Dhwani: the ‘modern form’ of Bhinna Shadja.
• Bhupali: [coming soon]
• Bhupali Todi: An audav Todi variant of uncertain origins – although Nijenhuis notes that it may have been borrowed from Carnatic music around the 16th or 17th centuries.
• Bibhas: [coming soon]
• Bihad Bhairav: Created by Bhairav-loving vocalist Kumar Gandharva (1924-1992) as a variant of Shivmat Bhairav, and performed several times from the 1970s onwards.
• Bihag: [coming soon]
• Bihagara: [coming soon]
• Bihagda: [coming soon]
• Bihari: [coming soon]
• Bilaskhani Todi: While inseparable from its origin myth, involving Tansen’s son Bilas Khan mixing up the swaras of Todi at his father’s funeral wake, the raga is very likely a later invention – although it remains unclear when and where it first arose (or if the real-life Bilas Khan had anything to do with it).
• Bilawal: Originally known as ‘Vilavali’ (suggesting at origins in the port city of Veraval, Gujarat), Bilawal settled on its present ‘all-shuddha’ scale by the end of the 16th century, and is featured prominently in the Guru Granth Sahib (1604) – with Alhaiya Bilawal and several other variants also thriving by the advent of the 18th century. Ghulam Reza’s 1793 Usul-i Naghmat al-Asafi lists Bilawal as the default ‘reference scale’ of Hindustani music (hence its ‘all-shuddha’ designation today) – and it appears in numerous ragmala paintings.
• Champak: [coming soon]
• Chandni Bihag: [coming soon]
• Chandni Kedar: [coming soon]
• Chandrakauns: Arose from divergent strains of ‘raised ni Malkauns’ around the mid-20th century, although I’m not yet clear on where or how this innovation occurred. Other ragas have previously gone by very similar names, with Meshakarna’s Ragmala (1570) depicting ‘Chandrakosh’ as a “fair-skinned man with…spear and blossoms, talking sweetly like nectar”, and Faqirullah’s Rag Darpan (1666) listing it as a ragini of Malkauns – while ‘Purana Chandrakauns’ is an ‘Audav Bageshri’ form, rare today and seemingly unconnected to the ‘main’ Chandrakauns.
• Chandrakaushiki: Created by Nikhil Banerjee some time prior to 1984 – combining ideas from Chandrakauns and Kaushik.
• Chandramadhu: Created by vocalist Amir Khan as a murchana of Chandrakauns, shortly before his untimely death in 1974 – indeed, it is unclear if he ever formally named his new creation (I’ve seen it referred to as ‘Bhushwati’ and ‘Amarpriya’, and at least two releases just list it as ‘Untitled Raga’). Also see his prakriti Madhukauns, invented around the same time (Khan may well have made no distinction between them).
• Chandranandan: Created by Ali Akbar Khan in the late 1940s to use up spare studio tape, via spontaneously blending ideas from Malkauns, Chandrakauns, Nandkauns, & Kaunsi Kanada – but, when concert audiences requested the raga, he found he had forgotten how to play it. His path of recomposition is a truly curious tale…
• Chandraprabha: [coming soon]
• Charukeshi: Imported from Carnatic music (melakarta #26) around the mid-20th-century – with its earliest adopters including Ravi Shankar and S.N. Ratanjankar.
• Chaya: [coming soon]
• Chaya Malhar: [coming soon]
• Chayanat: Formed from an archaic union between Chaya and Nat, Chayanat is at least 400 years old – being described in Somantha’s Raga Vibhoda (1610) as a passionate, red-eyed warrior-hero, and listed in the Sangita Sar (c.1800) as one of the 18 varieties of Nat (although today, it has mostly subsumed its ‘pure’ Nat parent).
• Dagori: Likely created by Jaipur-Atrauli founder Alladiya Khan (1855-1946), possibly as a Patdeep offshoot (the origins of the ‘Dagori’ name are unclear, but Shruti Sadolikar links it to the Dagarvani Dhrupad lineage, in which Khan received extensive training).
• Dakshinatya Basant: A longstanding Basant variant of presumed Southern origin (the name means ‘Southern Basant’) – considered by some artists to be indistinct from the historic Adi Basant lineage.
• Darbari: [coming soon]
• Darjeeling: Unveiled by sitarist Niladri Kumar in a 2014 Taj Mahal tea commercial (“I have composed it in honour of the superlative flavour”).
• Deen Todi: A near-extinct Todi-ang raga of uncertain origin (today, it has essentially been subsumed by Ravi Shankar’s prakriti Parameshwari since its invention in the late 1960s).
• Deepak: [coming soon]
• Deepavali: [coming soon]
• Des Malhar: [coming soon]
• Desh: [coming soon]
• Deshkar: [coming soon]
• Desi: [coming soon]
• Dev Gandhar: [coming soon]
• Devata Bhairav: Created by Agra pioneer Azmat Hussain Khan ‘Dilrang’ – who, according to his son Vahajat, invented the raga “spontaneously…before a 1944 concert at Kolhapur’s Deval Club…with Alladiya Khan, Faiyaz Khan, Vilayat Khan, and many other seasoned musicians of Maharashtra in the audience”.
• Devgandhari Todi: Devised by Agra vocalist S.N. Ratanjankar (1899-1974) as a Todi-ang modification of Dev Gandhar.
• Devgiri Bilawal: [coming soon]
• Devranjani: [coming soon]
• Devshri: [coming soon]
• Dhanashree: [coming soon]
• Dhani: Though best-know today as the ‘aroha of Bhimpalasi’, Dhani’s SgmPnS scale form stretches back to the 16th century, when it may have been the ‘default’ Dhanashree raga (‘Shuddha Dhanashree’: a name which suggests historic overlap with the congruent Carnatic ‘Suddha Dhanyasi’).
• Dhavalshree: [coming soon]
• Din ki Puriya: [coming soon]
• Durga: A recent Carnatic import (seemingly connected to Suddha Saveri), only gaining broad acceptance among rasikas around the mid-20th century.
• Durgawati: Seemingly an invention of Hariprasad Chaurasia (based on the lack of renditions by anyone else) – with his principal recording being a 1997 Navras album.
• Ek Prakar ki Kauns: Created by Rais Khan as a Malkauns variant (the name just means ‘A Type of Kauns’) – unveiled on a 1985 Navras album.
• Enayetkhani Kanada: Created by Vilayat Khan circa 1981 as a Darbari variant – dedicated to his father Enayet Khan (although when the raga first surfaced, he referred to it as ‘Vilayat Khani Kanada’ instead…).
• Faridi Todi: [coming soon]
• Firozkhani Todi: [coming soon]
• Gagan Vihang: [coming soon]
• Gandhari: [coming soon]
• Gangeshwari: Created by Ravi Shankar in 1968 via murchana rotation of his newly-invented Kameshwari (itself dreamed up during a Bengal car ride) – like Parameshwari and Rangeshwari
• Gaoti: [coming soon]
• Gara: A disparate lineage derived from thumri compositions of centuries past (“a loose, informal melodic entity until the 18th century, after which [its] grammar was organised by classically-trained musicians”) – also sharing historic overlap with Jaijaiwanti.
• Gaud Malhar: Among the oldest Malhar ragas, thought to date back to the ‘prachina’ era (pre-C15th) in the development of its raganga – see Malhar raganga for more detail.
• Gaud Sarang: [coming soon]
• Gaudgiri Malhar: [coming soon]
• Gauri: [coming soon]
• Gauri Basant: Created by Kumar Gandharva (1924-1992) via fusing Gauri with Basant’s tivra Ma incarnation.
• Gaurimanjari: Created by Ali Akbar Khan some time prior to the 1970s, via blending ideas from across the Lalit to Gauri spectrum (‘Gaurimanjari’ translates as ‘Bouquet of Gauris’).
• Gopika Basant: Presumed to be a Hindustani rework of the Carnatic Gopikavasantham, although it is unclear when this borrowing may have occurred.
• Gorakh Kalyan: [coming soon]
• Gujiri Todi: [coming soon]
• Gunakri: [coming soon]
• Gunji Kanada: Created by Gwalior vocalist Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872-1931), as a blend of Malgunji and Kaunsi Kanada.
• Gunkali: [coming soon]
• Hameer: [coming soon]
• Hansa Narayani: [coming soon]
• Hansadhwani: [coming soon]
• Hanskinkini: [coming soon]
• Harikauns: [coming soon]
• Hem Bihag: Often cited as an invention of Ravi Shankar, Hem Bihag was in fact devised by his guru Allauddin Khan as a blend of Bihag and his own Hemant.
• Hemant: Often credited to Ravi Shankar, who first performed it in the 1940s – but in fact an invention of his guru Allauddin Khan (according to one tale, Shankar “played Hemant on an All India Radio broadcast around 1944: Allauddin Khan was so pleased with Pandit-ji‘s interpretation that he ‘presented’ the raga to him thereafter…”) – with possible links to a rare Dagarvani form known as ‘Kandrima’.
• Hemavati: Adopted from Carnatic music (melakarta #58) – now most prominently associated with Hariprasad Chaurasia, although it is unclear who first borrowed the scale (Amjad Ali Khan and Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan have also recorded it: indeed, it may have been independently imported several times).
• Hemshri: Created by Gwalior vocalist Vishwanath Rao Ringe ‘Tanarang’ (1920-2005) – envisaged as a ‘komal ga Tilang’.
• Hindol: [coming soon]
• Hindolita: Seemingly created by Bhimsen Joshi as a blend of Hindol and Lalit (“Bhimsen set his Todi cheez [Airi Mayi Aaj Shubh Mangal] in a totally different raga, which he used to sing a lot in the late 1980s…”).
• Hussaini Kanada: [coming soon]
• Hussaini Todi: [coming soon]
• Imratkauns: Created by Imdadkhani master Imrat Khan (1935-2018) – exact date unclear, but possibly first released on a 1992 album.
• Jaijaiwanti: [coming soon]
• Jaijaiwanti Nat: A rare jod of Jaijaiwanti and Nat with unclear origins – the only renditions I can trace are by Bhimsen Joshi, starting in the 1970s, although some suggest Jaipur-Atrauli guru Azizuddin Khan as the raga’s creator instead (it may be that both artists independently devised their own ‘Jaijaiwanti + Nat’ combinations).
• Jait: [coming soon]
• Jait Kalyan: Often credited to by Jaipur-Atrauli founder Alladiya Khan (1855-1946) – although the general ‘Jait + Kalyan’ concept may have been attempted by others prior to this.
• Jaitashree: [coming soon]
• Jaiwanti Todi: Created as a Todi offshoot by Maharaja Jaiwant Singh Waghela (1904-1980): hereditary King of Sanand and one of Pandit Jasraj’s first gurus.
• Jaldhar Kedar: [coming soon]
• Jansammohini: Adopted from the Carnatic ragam of the same name by Ravi Shankar – although the same scale used to be known as ‘Siva Kalyan’ in the North.
• Jaun Bhairav: Created by Agra vocalist Jagannathbuwa Purohit ‘Gunidas’ (1904-1968), combining Jaunpuri and Bhairav.
• Jaunpuri: Listed in Faqirullah’s Rag Darpan (1666) under the name ‘Jaunpuri Todi’, and described as a creation of Hussain Shah Sharqi, a 15th-century Sultan of Jaunpur (also an accomplished musician and generous patron of the arts). Possibly connected to an older raga called ‘Yavana Todi’, mentioned in Pundarika’s Ragmala (1576).
• Jayant Malhar: [coming soon]
• Jhinjhoti: [coming soon]
• Jog: Despite its fabled Tansen associations, Jog only rose to prominence in the second half of the 20th century, conceived as a Tilang offshoot which originally featured double-Ni as well as double-Ga – composer uncertain, although several sources suggest Mehboob Khan ‘Daraspiya’ (1845-1922) as the most likely.
• Jogeshwari: Created by Ravi Shankar as a combination of Jog and Rageshri – first released on a 1980 album, although he was performing it at least 5 years earlier (e.g. at a 1975 Varanasi concert).
• Jogeshwari Pancham: Created by Gwalior vocalist Vishwanath Rao Ringe ‘Tanarang’ (1920-2005) by adding touches of avroh Pa to Jogeshwari.
• Jogiya: [coming soon]
• Jogkauns: Created by J.P. ‘Gunidas’ in the 1940s – originally conceived as a ‘Jog + raised-Ni Malkauns’ blend, but has since been summarised as ‘Jog + Chandrakauns’ (as Chandrakauns did not yet exist as a separate raga from Malkauns: “Gunidas originally referred to his inspiration as simply ‘Kaunshi’, but a subsequent discussion with B.R. Deodhar lead him to re-baptize it ‘Jogkauns’ given its harmonious blend of Jog with the Kaunsi-ang“).
• Jungala: The term ‘jungala’ (or ‘jangla’) generally indicates a ‘reworked’ variant of a well-known raga rather than a specific set of swaras – thus it is hard to sketch out a coherent historical narrative.
• Kabiri Bhairav: Mythically linked to Kabir, a famous 14th-century poet-mystic known for his radical critiques of organised religion – however the raga is almost certainly a more recent creation.
• Kafi: [coming soon]
• Kalashri: Created by Bhimsen Joshi as a combination of Kalavati and Rageshri – said to have been inspired by Gopalkrishna Bhobe’s 1969 sangeet natak Dhanya Te Gayani Kala (“Bhimsen-ji developed upon the melody, becoming Kalashri…He even named his home in Pune after this extraordinary raga”).
• Kalavati: Generally assumed to be a 20th-century Kirana gharana adaption of the Carnatic Valaji – although it is unclear who first borrowed it (likely candidates include Gangubai Hangal or Abdul Karim Khan, with Roshan Ara Begum and Rao Nagarkar also mentioned as early adopters).
• Kalingada: [coming soon]
• Kambhoji: [coming soon]
• Kameshwari: Created by Ravi Shankar in 1968 during a long car ride through Chengali, Bengal – and soon after, via murchana, gave rise to Parameshwari, Gangeshwari and Rangeshwari.
• Kamod: Thought to have arisen as a pre-16th-century blend of Gaud and Hameer, and featured in various ragmala paintings in the following centuries – but precise details of its genesis are unclear [n.b. the historic ‘Kamodi’ is a separate raga, connected to the Khamaj lineage].
• Kaunsi Kanada: [coming soon]
• Kaushik Dhwani: Considered to be the ‘modern form’ of Bhinna Shadja – itself an ancient raga derived from the Shadja Grama base scale.
• Kedar: [coming soon]
• Kesari Kalyan: Created by Gwalior vocalist and educator Ramashreya Jha ‘Ramrang’ (1928-2009) as a Ma-less Kalyan variant.
• Khamaj: Descended from the ancient Kamboja (named for a region of North India: also see Kambhoji), which finds mention in Matanga’s Brihaddeshi (~C8th). Khamaj itself is described by later authors such as Meshakarna (1570) – although I’ve thus far been unable to trace any ragmala depictions, perhaps due to its longstanding ‘thumri raga’ status.
• Khambavati: [coming soon]
• Khat: [coming soon]
• Khat Todi: [coming soon]
• Khem Kalyan: A rare Agra raga of uncertain origins, which fell from favour in the 20th century before being revived by the efforts of artists such as Deepak Raja and Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande.
• Khokar: [coming soon]
• Kirwani: Imported from Carnatic music (melakarta #21), likely via Ravi Shankar‘s experiments of the 1950s – although an archaic form of Pilu used to occupy the same scale form.
• Kokilapriya: [coming soon]
• Komal Ramkali: [coming soon]
• Kukubh Bilawal: [coming soon]
• Lachari Kanada: Origins uncertain, and now essentially extinct – the only recordings I could find are two brief cuts by Agra vocalist Latafat Kussain Khan (1920-1986).
• Lachari Todi: Origins unclear – but likely of considerable age, given the cross-gharana diversity evident in its modern incarnations.
• Lagan Gandhar: Created by gharana-blending vocalist Kumar Gandharva (1924-1992) – although it is unclear where the inspiration for the raga’s curious ‘triple-Ga’ came from.
• Lakshmi Kalyan: Said by Deepak Kshirsagar to have been created by “Shri Vamanrao Bhat, [who] conceived the raga in memory of his mother” – however it is unclear who ‘Vamanrao Bhat[t]’ may be.
• Lakshmi Todi: [coming soon]
• Lalit: [coming soon]
• Lalit Pancham: [coming soon]
• Lalita Gauri: Most closely associated with Jaipur-Atrauli vocalist Kesarbai Kerkar (1892-1977) – although other artists seem to have independently devised their own ‘Lalit + Gauri‘ experiments over the years (e.g. a release by the Junior Dagars may predate Kerkar’s releases).
• Lalita Sohini: Reportedly created by Agra vocalist Yunus Ahmed Khan in the mid-20th century – although other artists have performed their own ‘Lalit + Sohini‘ blends.
• Lanka Dahan Sarang: [coming soon]
• Lankeshwari: Origins unclear – appears to be a blend of ideas from Bageshri, Rageshri, and Malgunji.
• Latangi: [coming soon]
• Lilavati: While confusion persists around which melodic forms are associated with the name ‘Lilavati’, the predominant form is a ‘komal ga Kalavati’, suggesting a 20th-century origin (Abhirang sourced his bandish from a 1969 edition of Sangeet magazine, also l linking his interpretation to the congruent Carnatic ‘Karani’).
• Madhu Multani: [coming soon]
• Madhukant: Origins unclear – the first mention I can find is by Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy in his 1971 book The Rags of North Indian Music: Their Structure and Evolution.
• Madhukauns: Created by vocalist Amir Khan as a murchana of Chandrakauns, shortly before his untimely death in 1974 – indeed, it is unclear if he ever formally named his new creation (also see his prakriti Chandramadhu, invented around the same time: in fact, Khan may have made no distinction between them).
• Madhumad Sarang: [coming soon]
• Madhuradhwani: [coming soon]
• Madhuranjani: The main ‘Madhuranjani’ is an audav form linked to the Carnatic Shrotaswini, possibly borrowed North by Jitendra Abhisheki – although other ragas with the same name are also in circulation, including those linked to Ravi Shankar (e.g. his student Shalil Shankar‘s ‘Madhuvanti + Shivranjani’ blend) and Imrat Khan (although I can’t trace any of his recordings, if they do indeed exist).
• Madhurkauns: Created by Kirana vocalist Prabha Atre (1932-2024) – seemingly as a ‘double-Ga’ development of her own Suryakauns.
• Madhusurja: Created by Kumar Gandharva (1924-1992) as a “ragini of Sarang” – inspired by witnessing the plight of a goat as it was led past his house on the way to be sacrificed at a nearby Kali temple.
• Madhuvanti: The Madhuvanti scale seems to have been independently devised at least twice: first by Vamanrao Padhye around the 1920s (entitled ‘Ambika’), and then by Vilayat Khan in the 1940s – with the latter’s renditions having the greater influence over today’s Madhuvanti.
• Malashree: [coming soon]
• Malavi: [coming soon]
• Malay Marutam: Imported from the Carnatic ragam of the same name by Ravi Shankar – who first released it on a 1963 album.
• Malayalam: Created by Ali Akbar Khan, named in honour of his mother (‘Malaya’) and father (‘Alam’: also the name of his own son, born in 1982) – and first released on a 1977 album.
• Malgunji: [coming soon]
• Maligoura: [coming soon]
• Malkauns: [coming soon]
• Malti Basant: [coming soon]
• Maluha: Created by Allauddin Khan in the first half of the 20th century as a mixture of Maluha Kedar and Yaman.
• Manavi: [coming soon]
• Mand: [coming soon]
• Mangal Bhairav: A Bhairav variant of uncertain origins – although, given its absence in Bhatkhande’s early 20th-century works, it may be of relatively recent genesis.
• Mangal Gujari: [coming soon]
• Mangal Todi: [coming soon]
• Manj Khamaj: Created by Allauddin Khan some time in the early 20th century as a Khamaj offshoot, said to have been inspired by a folk melody from Uttar Pradesh – with Patiala vocalist Bade Ghulam Ali Khan also playing a key role in its early proliferation.
• Manjari Bihag: [coming soon]
• Maru: [coming soon]
• Maru Bihag: Popularised by Jaipur-Atrauli founder Alladiya Khan (1855-1946), who may have invented it – although other names are also posited, including Saharanpur sarangiya Abban Khan (?-1922) and Rampur-Sahaswan vocalist Nisar Hussain Khan (1909-1993). Connections to the ancient Maru lineage are unclear.
• Marwa: [coming soon]
• Medhavi: Generally cited as an invention of Ali Akbar Khan, who seems to be the sole source of recordings – however the liner notes to his main rendition make no direct mention of his authorship, instead describing it as “a compound melody of recent origin…[based on] Kalyan, Nat, and Bilawal”.
• Megh: [coming soon]
• Meghranjani: Imported from the Carnatic ragam of the same name, and said to date back to some time before Bhatkhande’s early-20th-century era (…although the earliest Hindustani mention I can directly trace comes from a 1939 edition of The Indian Listener).
• Meladalan: Meladalan itself is an unrecorded creation of musicologist Acharya Brahaspati (1918-1972) who alternately titled it ‘Thatavidhwamasa’, with both names translating as ‘Destroying the Foundational Scales’ (“it is an ancient raga which [Brahaspati] wants to bring into life again”) – however the same SrgmMdnS scale form has since been performed by others including Ulhas Bapat (as ‘Parijat‘) and Nikhil Banerjee (as ‘Madhyam se Bhairavi‘).
• Milan Gandhar: Created by Sham Chaurasia singer Salamat Ali Khan (1934-2001), based on Kalavati with a komal ga added in avroh.
• Miyan ki Malhar: [coming soon]
• Miyan ki Sarang: [coming soon]
• Mohankauns: Created by Ravi Shankar in 1949 on learning of Mahatma Gandhi’s death, as a spontaneous modification of Malkauns – commemorating the Mahatma’s surname with the phrase ‘Ga-Ni-Dha’.
• Monomanjari: Created by Nikhil Banerjee some time in the 1980s, as a combination of Kalavati and Marwa (“I’m quite satisfied with one of my Sonodisc LPs, Raag Monomanjari: that’s my favourite so far…”).
• Mudriki Kanada: A rare Kanada raga of uncertain origin, which appears in disparate forms today.
• Multani: Presumed to have origins in Multan, Punjab, although precise details of its genesis are unclear – with a lineage stretching back to at least the 17th century (Faqirullah’s 1666 Rag Darpan mentions two varieties: ‘Multani Todi’ and ‘Multani Dhanashree’, describing the latter as a combination of Dhanashree and Malashree and attributing it to 13th-century Sufi saint Bahauddin Zakariya). As per Bhatkhande, the early 19th-century form of Multani took the swaras SrgmPdNS (see ‘unfilled thaat #24’).
• Nagadhwani Kanada: A barely-performed Kanada raga of uncertain origin – although the term ‘Nagadhwani’ (‘Sound of Serpents’) appears in shastras such as the 13th-century Sangita Ratnakara.
• Nand: [coming soon]
• Nandkauns: [coming soon]
• Narayani: [coming soon]
• Nat: [coming soon]
• Nat Bhairav: Introduced by Ravi Shankar in 1945 as his first raga creation – inspired by attending a lecture-demo by musicologist B.R. Deodhar (“In Pune in 1945, Ravi heard Deodhar singing a composition…[and] in a moment of inspiration, thought of a way to improve it by using only the shuddha Re”).
• Nat Bihag: [coming soon]
• Nat Kamod: [coming soon]
• Nayaki Kanada: [coming soon]
• Neelambari: Created by Gwalior vocalist Omkarnath Thakur some time prior to 1936, as a blend of the already-allied Kafi and Sindhura (it bears no discernible connections to the Carnatic raga of the same name).
• Niranjani Todi: Created by Jaipur-Atrauli vocalist Kishori Amonkar (1932-2017), combining elements from Bairagi, Ahir Bhairav, and Bhinna Shadja (although it is unclear when – in fact, I can’t track down a single Kishori rendition).
• Noor Sarang: [coming soon]
• Pahadi: [coming soon]
• Palas: [coming soon]
• Pancham: [coming soon]
• Pancham Malkauns: [coming soon]
• Pancham se Gara: A direct murchana of Gara (literally: ‘Gara from Pa’) – seemingly invented by Ravi Shankar, who began performing it some time around the early 1950s.
• Pancham se Pilu: A direct murchana of Pilu devised by Vilayat Khan – exact date of conception unclear, but first released on a 1960 album.
• Paraj: Precise historical path unclear, but presumed to be a longstanding offshoot of the Basant lineage – with the Sangit Sar (c.1800) noting that the only difference between the ragas was that Paraj took a komal dha and Basant a shuddha Dha (see Shuddha Basant).
• Paraj Kalingada: [coming soon]
• Parameshwari: Created by Ravi Shankar in 1968 via murchana rotation of his newly-invented Kameshwari (itself dreamed up during a long Bengal car ride) – along with Gangeshwari and Rangeshwari.
• Pat Bihag: [coming soon]
• Patdeep: Derived from the Dhanashree family (likely as an offshoot of Bhimpalasi), although precise origins are uncertain – past variants took double-Ga and Ni, and the modern scale may only have risen to prominence in the past few generations [n.b. ‘Pardip/Pardipki’ appears to be an unconnected lineage].
• Patdeepaki: [coming soon]
• Patmanjari: Translating as ‘Bouquet of Five Ragas’, debate persists over whether the modern form of Patmanjari is an open challenge to blend any five ragas, or whether it entails five specific ragas (and, if so, which they should be) – although a raga by this name turns up in medieval texts as a ragini of either Deepak or Bhairav, and is frequently depicted in classical ragmala paintings.
• Pilu: A flexible, permissive framework which arguably functions more like an alliance of amorous folk tunes than a ‘rigorously codified’ raga form (Bhatkhande recounts that some artists in his early 20th-century era resisted Pilu’s classification as a ‘full raga’ altogether). The raga has antecedents in a defunct Kirwani-prakriti form, possibly inspired by folk songs from Gujarat and Mithila – with Pratap Singh’s early 19th-century shastras containing this form of Pilu (some artists still perform this older interpretation under the title ‘Shuddha Pilu’).
• Poorvi: Descended from Purvagauda, an ancient raga from Eastern India which approximated the swara of today’s Bhairav – although Poorvi itself finds no mention until the 16th century.
• Prabhakali: Created by Ali Akbar Khan – precise information is scant, but seemingly first released on a 1964 album.
• Prabhat Bhairav: [coming soon]
• Prabhateshwari: A Maihar gharana invention combining flavours of Bageshri and Ahir Bhairav – likely introduced by Hariprasad Chaurasia, but several reputable sources have suggested to me that Annapurna Devi or her father Allauddin Khan may have created it instead.
• Purba: [coming soon]
• Puriya: Precise historical path unclear, although the raga seems to have changed significantly over the years. In the 17th century it was linked to the Kanada lineage, whereas Lochana’s Raga Tarangini (c.1700) places it in the ‘Iman mela’ (the ancestral equivalent of today’s Kalyan) – and Muhammed Raza Khan (c.1792) lists it as a ragini of Hindol.
• Puriya Dhanashree: An archaic blending of Puriya and Dhanashree which finds mention in Faqirullah’s Rag Darpan (1666) and Locarna’s Raga Tarangini (c.1680s). The same SrGMPdNS scale form was long considered to be the Bengali or ‘Eastern’ form of Dhanashree – however the Sangit Sar (c.1800), compiled in Jaipur, titles this swara set ‘Margi Dhanashree/Miyan ki Dhanashree’, with Dhanashree itself listed as taking a dha sruti between the komal and shuddha shades. Despite its long lineage, Puriya Dhanashree only gained its widespread popularity over the past century or so.
• Puriya Kalyan: [coming soon]
• Purva: [coming soon]
• Rageshri: Precise origins uncertain, widely considered to be a offshoot of the Bageshri lineage – while it only rose to popularity around the turn of the 20th century, an older sampurna form may have existed since the 16th century (Agra singers claim it as an invention of Haji Sujan Khan, and others point to Tansen: both members of Akbar’s royal court). A raga known as ‘Shringeri’ is also cited as an antecedent.
• Rageshri Bahar: [coming soon]
• Rageshri Kanada: Origins unclear – a Rageshri variant with only a single traceable recording, by Dagarvani vocalist Rahimuddin Khan Dagar (1900-1975).
• Raisa Kanada: [coming soon]
• Raj Kalyan: Devised by Gwalior vocalist Vasantrao Deshpande (1920-1983) – although the swara set is an exact match for the near-extinct Maru (some artists use the two names interchangeably).
• Rajeshwari: [coming soon]
• Ramdasi Malhar: Named for its supposed creator: Guru Ram Das, a 16th-century Sikh saint who is said to have opened Emperor Akbar’s eyes to the unity of the divine – but historical proof of the raga’s origins is lacking.
• Ramkali: Descended from an ancient form known as ‘Ramakriti/Ramakri’ (which took essentially the same swaras as today’s Ramkali: SrGmPdNS) – with the tivra Ma likely added in the early 17th century (although Dhrupad traditions preferred the ‘shuddha ma only’ form for some time after this). Featured prominently in the 1604 Guru Granth Sahib – and Pratap Singh’s early 19th-century shastras differentiate Ramkali from ‘Deshi Ramkali’, with the former taking a komal ni, and the latter a ‘mid-sruti’ between the komal and shuddha shades.
• Rampriya: Borrowed from Carnatic music (melakarta #52) – it is unclear who first imported the scale, with Amir Khan’s 1971 rendition being the earliest I can trace (intriguingly, the lyrics of his rendition are based on a Persian ruba’i poem).
• Rang Malhar: Created spontaneously by bansuriya Rupak Kulkarni at a monsoon festival (“I was the last performer, and all types of Malhar ragas had been played already. I thought I should come up with a different one…a unique combination, mixing Shuddha Sarang and Miyan ki Malhar”).
• Rangeshwari: Created by Ravi Shankar in 1968, via murchana rotation of his newly-invented Kameshwari (itself dreamed up during a Bengal car ride) – like Parameshwari and Gangeshwari.
• Rasaranjani: Created by Rampur vocalist Hafeez Ahmed Khan some time prior to 1980 – presumably derived from the Carnatic Rasa Ranjani.
• Rasikpriya: Borrowed from Carnatic music (melakarta #72) – seemingly introduced to the North by Shivkumar Sharma, who recorded it on a 1991 album.
• Rati Bhairav: Created by Kumar Gandharva as a blend of Bhairav and Ahir Bhairav (“symbolises the union of Shiva [Bhairav] and Shakti [Ahir Bhairav]. The name signifies this union [‘Rati’ is the Hindu goddess of lust and erotic union]”.
• Reva: [coming soon]
• Rishabhapriya: [coming soon]
• Roopkali: [coming soon]
• Saheli Todi: Created by gharana-blending vocalist Kumar Gandharva (1924-1992), lying somewhere between Bhupali Todi and Bilaskhani Todi.
• Sakh: [coming soon]
• Salagavarali: Created by S.N. Ratanjankar (1899-1974) by removing shuddha ma from the Carnatic Shadvidmargini (melakarta #46) – possibly first titled ‘Salag Varali Todi’ by its inventor.
• Samant Sarang: [coming soon]
• Sampurna Malkauns: [coming soon]
• Sanjh Saravali: Created by Vilayat Khan in the late 1970s as a blending of ideas from several Kalyan ragas.
• Sarang (Brindabani): [coming soon]
• Saraswati: Imported from Carnatic music in recent times – with Rampur-Sahaswan vocalist Ghulam Mustafa Khan (1931-2021) claiming that he was the first to bring it North.
• Saraswati Kedar: Created by Gwalior vocalist Vishwanath Rao Ringe ‘Tanarang’ (1920-2005) as a direct ‘Saraswati + Kedar’ jod.
• Saraswati Sarang: Said to have been created by vichtra veena maestro Gopal Krishnan (1926-2004) as a ‘Saraswati + Sarang’ jod – although other artists have also recorded this combination as ‘Ambika Sarang’.
• Saurashtra Bhairav: A traditional Bhairav variant of unclear origins – although the name is presumably derived from Gujarat’s Saurashtra region.
• Savani: [coming soon]
• Sazgiri: [coming soon]
• Sehera: A mysterious scale of uncertain origins – recorded by a handful of artists in the 20th century, notably including Sultan Khan and Mehdi Hassan (the origins of name ‘Sehera/Sehra’ are unclear, but may relate to an Arabic term for ‘Desert’, perhaps hinting at the raga’s geographic origins).
• Shahana: [coming soon]
• Shankara: [coming soon]
• Shankara Karan: [coming soon]
• Shanmukhpriya: [coming soon]
• Shivanjali: [coming soon]
• Shivawanti: Created by sitar and surbahar legend Imrat Khan as a combination of Madhuvanti and Shivranjani – with a prominent release on his 2008 album.
• Shivmat Bhairav: [coming soon]
• Shivranjani: [coming soon]
• Shobhawari: [coming soon]
• Shree: [coming soon]
• Shree Kalyan: Created by Kumar Gandharva (1924-1992) – although given the prominence of the two parent ragas, other artists may well have performed their own ‘Shree + Kalyan’ blends before this.
• Shrutivardhini: [coming soon]
• Shuddha Basant: [coming soon]
• Shuddha Kalyan: [coming soon]
• Shuddha Malhar: Among the very oldest Malhar ragas – finding mention in numerous ancient texts such as Sarangdeva’s Sangita Ratnakara (C13th), Pundarika Vitthala’s Raga Manjari (C16th), Damodara Misra’s Sangita Darpana (~1625), Pandit Ahobal’s Sangit Parijat (1650), and Locana Kavi’s Raga Tarangini (c.1700). See Malhar raganga for more.
• Shuddha Sarang: [coming soon]
• Shukla Bilawal: [coming soon]
• Shyam Kalyan: [coming soon]
• Simhendra Madhyamam: Imported from Carnatic music (melakarta #57) by Ravi Shankar, who first recorded it in 1938 (aged 17-18) as part of his brother Uday’s dance troupe ensemble, during the New York leg of their pioneering world tour – and later prominently released on his 1956 Three Ragas album.
• Sindhura: [coming soon]
• Sohini: [coming soon]
• Sohini Pancham: [coming soon]
• Sonakshi: Created by Maihar bansuriya Rupak Kulkarni (“I created Sonakshi [‘Golden-Eyed‘] so I could experience a raga which was suitable for any time of day…I took a few phrases from Lalit and Bhairav [dawn] and blended them with those from Marwa [sunset]”).
• Sorath: [coming soon]
• Sughrai: [coming soon]
• Suha Kanada: [coming soon]
• Suha Todi: Associated with Ali Akbar Khan, although the liner notes to his 1978 album rendition make no claim of his authorship – it is unclear who first devised the ‘Suha + Todi’ combination.
• Sundarkali: Origins unclear – Anjani Kumar Gupta’s concise bansuri rendition is the only full recording I could find, although Tanarang’s disciple Prakash Vishwanath Ringe has released a brief selection of khayal demos.
• Sundarkauns: [coming soon]
• Surdasi Malhar: [coming soon]
• Swanandi: Created by Agra vocalist J.P. Gunidas (1904-1968), drawing on material from Bhatiyar, Bihag, and Bhinna Shadja.
• Tankeshree: [coming soon]
• Tanseni Madhuvanti: [coming soon]
• Tilak Bhairav: Possibly created by Imdadkhani sitarist & vocalist Dhruva Tara Joshi (1912-1993), based on the lack of recordings by anyone else.
• Tilak Kamod: [coming soon]
• Tilak Malhar: [coming soon]
• Tilang: [coming soon]
• Tilang Bahar: [coming soon]
• Tivrakauns: Created by Abhirang by raising Malkauns’ shuddha ma to its tivra variant – first unveiled in a 2022 video.
• Todi: [coming soon]
• Triveni: [coming soon]
• Tulsikauns: Created by Maihar sitarist Kartik Kumar (1935-) some time prior to the 1990s as a Malkauns variant (also listen to Kumar’s ‘Chandramukhi‘: a prakriti form which to me sounds indistinguishable from Tulsikauns).
• Vachaspati: Adapted from Carnatic music (melakarta #64) in the mid-20th century by Maihar artists including Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan.
• Vardhini: Adapted from Carnatic music (melakarta #32) into the Dagarvani Dhrupad – seemingly first borrowed by Zia Mohiuddin Dagar in the 1980s.
• Vihang: [coming soon]
• Vijayanagari: Adapted from its Carnatic namesake by esteemed Gwalior guru Balabhau Umdekar (1901-1968).
• Virat Bhairav: [coming soon]
• Viyogavarali: Introduced by Agra vocalist S.N. Ratanjankar (1899-1974) by omitting Pa from the Carnatic Dhenuka (melakarta #9) – perhaps originally titled ‘Viyog Varali Todi’.
• Yaman: [coming soon]
• Zeelaf: [coming soon]
• Zila Kafi: [coming soon]
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