Welcome to our first edition of RagaNet, an electronic journal for a new era. This magazine is dedicated to an ongoing research and exposure of music and cultural arts of India.

It is the only magazine of its kind, we believe, that is dedicated to teach and keep you informed of the various aspects of Indian arts through literature and recorded material in the form of audio as well as video clips.

Pandit Shiv Dayal Batish, was our founder and chief editor, has for the past 6 decades. He selflessly dedicated and devoted himself towards promoting the music of India in the world. He cut his first hit record for His Master's Voice, EMI, India, in 1936. He has since then scored music for over 50 films, sang thousands of songs while also composing and directing music for almost all the popular singers of Indian film industry. His stay in England prompted much demand for his talents where he was regularly featured on Indian TV programs and invited to play music with very popular rock groups including the Beatles. In America, he was invited to teach music at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Here he settled.

That was back in 1970. Since that time Pt. S. D. Batish was always hard at work in trying to bring Indian music and culture one more step closer to the West. Since the 60's he thoroughly researched every aspect of Indian music and wrote over 6000 new compositions on North Indian and Carnatic music forms popularly known as Raga. Beyond that, he personally recorded this enormous work so as to have it available on recordings for easy access by all future music students.

His research has also produced many books on thr history and theory of North Indian music. All this today forms the basis of our publications and music teaching activities.

The Batish family also takes great pride in incorporating into our musical discussions and writings, the musics of all cultures. We strongly believe that there are very few things in this world that have not been enriched by inter-cultural exposure. As a matter of fact, the primary premise of Indian arts is to portray comprehensively a global view. That is why it is so rich. Even the ragas are named after regions of their very origin. Examples of this can be seen in raga Bhoopali from the region of Bhoopal, Raga Pahadi of the mountainous regions of Punjab and Himalaya. Raga Brindabani Sarang is associated with the brindaban or vrindavan region of India the mythical birth place of Lord Krishna.

Indian music provides a vast reservoir and its potential cannot be denied especially to the western musician. It can provide new variety that can kindle new and exciting possibilities so necessary for reaching new heights. We have an ardent belief that despite scientific and technological progress of mankind, much remains to be realized in the various artistic fields.

To the Western world, Indian music remained distant for many years. This is still evident in the vast majority of Western musicians. There has been a trend in the past 50 years to garner more knowledge by a respected few but the majority of musicians today are ignorant of what makes Indian music tic. Many probably own a good collection of Ravi Shankar records but find it hard to go beyond pure listening pleasure into the understanding and deciphering phase. It is this point of understanding that we aim to address through our articles.

For the benefit of serious musicians and music lovers all over the world, we intend to introduce musical raga modes and their expansions which will enable a closer understanding of a raga, its melodic introduction, followed by a composition, with suggestions on how to improvise within it. A collection of almost 700 ragas can be accessed through our publication Ragopedia (available through Amazon.com) and Chalan volumes that are currently only available through our very own online service.

Wherever necessary, we augment our articles with audio and video clips, such as in the area of Alankars, musical ornamentation. We are truly blessed to have the possibility of such interactivity through the internet. It is what makes RagaNet a powerful communication medium. Our gratitude goes to the all Internet weavers and creators.

We hope you will become a part of what is to come. There is a great deal that depends on your participation. You can help in numerous ways. You can write minor or feature articles, review concerts, do artist interviews, review recordings, inform us of any upcoming activity in your area. Most of all, subscribe to the journal and recommend it to as many of your friends as you think will learn from it.

Finally, I wish to humbly request your forgiveness for any errors and omissions in any of our writings and articles. It is a given that while one tries their best to put their best foot forward and to research all the best resources at our command yet there will always remain grey areas in this inexact science of interpretting historical facts. Do give us your feedback and any corrections should be forwarded to me. I promise to look them over and give them my full attention.

Musically yours,

Ashwin Batish
Managing Editor

Issues:

1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9

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