Raga

A raga or raag (literally "color, hue" but also "beauty, melody"; also spelled raaga, ragam; pronounced rāga, or rāgam or "raag") is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.

A raga uses a series of five to nine musical notes upon which a melody is constructed. However, the way the notes are approached and rendered in musical phrases and the mood they convey are more important in defining a raga than the notes themselves. In the Indian musical tradition, rāgas are associated with different times of the day, or with seasons. Indian classical music is always set in a rāga. Non-classical music such as popular Indian film songs and ghazals sometimes use rāgas in their compositions.

Joep Bor of the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music defined Raga as "tonal framework for composition and improvisation."Nazir Jairazbhoy, chairman of UCLA's department of ethnomusicology, characterized ragas as separated by scale, line of ascent and descent, transilience, emphasized notes and register, and intonation and ornaments.Pandit Jasraj describes the meaning of Raga as "love".

Raga (Buddhism)

Raga (Sanskrit, also rāga; Pali lobha; Tibetan: 'dod chags) - is translated as "attachment", "passion", or "desire". It is defined as hankering after things within the three realms of existence; it produces frustration. Raga (lobha) is identified in the following contexts within the Buddhist teachings:

Definitions

Theravada

The Visuddhimagga (XIV, 162) gives the following definition of lobha:

Nina van Gorkom explains:

Mahayana

The Abhidharma-samuccaya states:

Je Tsongkhapa states:

Contemporary explanations

Raga is said to arise from the identification of the self as being separate from everything else. This mis-perception or misunderstanding is referred to as avidya (ignorance).

Contemporary Buddhist teachers such as Mingyur Rinpoche, Daniel Goleman, and Ron Leifer have noted that there is a level of "attachment" to the self that is necessary for biological survival, but that when this "attachment" extends to non-essential needs, it becomes unhealthy. Mingyur Rinpoche explains:

Raga (disambiguation)

Raga (or raaga, raag, ragam) refers to musical modes used in Indian classical music

Raga may also refer to:

Films

Music

Places