The Raga Guide is an introduction to Hindustani ragas, the melodic basis for the classical music of Northern India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Ragas are complex entities. Few performers have been taught to approach ragas from an analytical point of view, while musicologists often lack a thorough practical insight into them. The authors here are well-versed in the theory and practice of raga music, and the guide surveys seventy-four of the most performed and well-established ones, with 5 hours of specially commissioned recordings on 4 CDs by Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute), Buddhadev DasGupta (sarod), Shruti Sadolikar-Katkar (vocal) and Vidyadhar Vyas (vocal). For each raga, the guide provides: An analytical and historical description; transcription of the alap (melodic construction) for each raga as performed on the CDs; ascent-descent and melodic outline in both western and Indian notation; Song texts with English translation (for sung ragas). It will be essential reading for listen