Comparative study of hindustani ragas
Patrick MOUTAL

The study of raga-s form is the backbone of Hindustani Raga Sangita.

Comparative Study of Hindustani Raga-s (Vol. I), offers an up-to-date like compilation on descriptions, forms, movements and spirit of 91 raga.

This work, first published in India in 1991, was not anymore available since 1997, date of its last reprint. I decided to take matters in my hands and to bring back this book to life. I felt it deserved it. That required a considerable and fastidious amount of work and having successfully overcome all problems, I am proud to present it to you in its new revised and augmented version. As for all my other books, it has been thoroughly composed with my own typographies (diacritical for transliterations and Devanagari). Text presentation has been thoroughly enhanced, reorganised, a great number of comparative tables added, analytical index developed. This new edition did gain in readability.

I have, of course, kept Indian musical notation but - you must have mastered it since you read the first of my books ! and for those who are not yet acquainted with it, it will only require a few minutes and a bit of practice (with the help of the memo provided) to fully get familiar with the reading of mere 7 notes in Hindi.

Out of the taxonomy of Hindustani repertoire, 74 raga-s have been detailed. They pertain to 5 anga-s "families": Kalyan, Sarang, Bhairav, Gauri and Kanada. Remaining are 17 miscellaneous raga-s, from diverse groups.

Investigations have been mainly based on the study of the contemporary Hindi texts written by the most outstanding Indian scholars, on the analysis of sound recorded raga-s and on the teachings of Dr. K. C. Gangrade (previous Dean & Head of Instrumental Music Dept., Faculty of Performing Arts, Banaras Hindu University).

Detailed references have been given to facilitate consulting of the various scholars and artists.

As there is a great lack of serious literature available in the English language on this subject, the present study can greatly benefit non-Hindi speaking students and scholars of India and abroad who, because of a mere language difficulty, had difficulty acceding to the analytical world of raga. Indians have always rightly thought that music and language were undissociable. That is the reason why they never felt the urge to write their best works in English but wrote them in Hindi. Similarly, Japonese and Korean students of Paris Conservatoire get deeply into French language and European culture in order to play Ravel and Bach. It can't work otherwise without becoming a fraud and a cultural assasination.