Raaga Science
Where ancient Indian musical wisdom meets modern inquiry
What Raaga Science is
Three strands, one enquiry
Founded by Ustad Nawab Khan, a ninth-generation santoor player from a lineage of royal court musicians in Rajasthan, to carry the tradition outward without thinning it.
Raaga
The inherited knowledge — a melodic framework, its hour of the day, its ornament and its lineage.
- Samay siddhant
- Gharana
- Musicology
- Repertoire
Enquiry
What is actually understood about sound and the listener — acoustics, attention, emotion — held carefully, and separated from what remains tradition rather than finding.
- Acoustics
- Attention
- Listening
- Open questions
Experience
Where the two meet in a room: a raga at its hour, a morning of naada yoga, three nights in a haveli, a concert under the stars.
- Festival
- Retreats
- Naada yoga
- Concerts
What we explore
The questions we are actually interested in
Raaga Science explores these relationships through Indian musical tradition, contemplative practice and careful enquiry. We do not offer medical treatment and we do not claim cures.
How we handle a claim
Tradition, evidence, and the gap between them
Every subject on this site is set out in three columns. It is the most useful thing we can offer a reader, and the reason you can trust the rest of it.
Traditional knowledge
Hindustani classical music holds that a raga belongs to an hour, and that hearing it at its hour changes how it lands. Naada yoga treats sound as something to be practised, not only heard.
This is a long, coherent body of inherited knowledge, taught within families and carried by ear.
What enquiry shows
Music listening is widely studied and is associated with measurable changes in attention, mood and bodily arousal. Slow breathing practices have well-documented effects on the autonomic nervous system.
Effect sizes vary considerably between studies and between individuals.
What we do not know yet
Whether specific ragas produce specific, repeatable states. Whether the time-of-day associations hold up when tested. Whether traditional mood attributions map onto anything measurable.
These are open, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Any research referenced on this site is cited to source. Statements without a citation are traditional knowledge, and labelled as such.
11 – 14 February 2027
The Raaga Science Experience
11 to 14 February 2027 at Pal Garh, a restored 18th-century haveli outside Jodhpur. Sunrise and sunset ragas, naada yoga each morning, a Jodhpur heritage walk, and a programme built on the eight prahars of the day.
Rooms are released in a single allocation, which is why it stays small by design rather than by accident.
Evening courtyard concert — Pal Garh, Jodhpur