“Ragamala paintings are visual meditations on sound—pictorial interpretations of ragas, each grounded in the belief that music is not only heard, but seen and felt. Every raga carries a distinct sonic signature, evoking not just melody, but imagery: the cry of an animal, the rhythm of footsteps, the hush of rain. In ancient practice, these were personified as deities or characters, richly adorned with symbolic iconography and accompanied by poetry.
 
In the traditional Ragamala canon, particularly as it flourished in medieval India, six principal parent ragas, the Shada Ragas, form the core of the system. Each is imagined as a male figure, linked to a specific time of day or season, and gives rise to female raginīs and, at times, putras (sons), forming an intricate family of sound and story.”

 

 

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To inaugurate the Garland of Ragas project, we return to these six parent ragas, not to replicate, but to reinterpret.

Each raga has been reworked through a contemporary lens, drawing on the emotional spectrum of the Navarasa, the geometric resonances of Cymatics, and a tailored color theory developed specifically for this archive.

What emerges is not a recreation, but a reimagining: a modern garland strung from ancient roots.