Bansuri player, producor for Hindustani music, Asian music and Shomyo performance

16.Summary

 It may be said that the actual state of the raga is clarified to some extent as follows:
・Number of ragas on discography collected from 1950 to 1984 is 419.
・Number of ragas on discography collected from internet CD stores in 2004 is 460.
・Number of ragas on two discographies is 626.
・Number of ragas on books is 671.
・Total number of ragas on two discographies and books is 986.
・Number of ragas whose scale constitution is identified to some extent is 581.
・This is a rough indication of the state of the raga. To some extent it is clear which ragas have been listened to so far and which ragas have been more popular than others.
・There is a considerable number of ragas derived from parents ragas.
・The ratio of ragas that appeared on only instrumental music, on only vocal music and common is almost 1:1:1.
・The distribution of raga by performance time did not have a big deviation.
・Around 60% of ragas are heptatonic scale. 20% each are pentatonic and hexatonic scale.
・More than 70% of ragas have the following Vadi-Samvadi combination; Ma-Sa, Pa-Sa, Sa-Pa, Ri-Pa, Ga-Ni, dha-ga.

The points mentioned on this paper may not make too much of a difference to actual performers whose main purpose is to render the raga beautifully. And these statistical facts and details are not directly related to deeper understanding or joy of listening. It is all the more because this kind study has not been done till now, it might be helpful for understanding this music as a music creating system based on raga.