As king Nanyadeva of Mithila (1097-1147) wrote, the variety of ragas is infinite, and their individual features are hard to put into words, "just as the sweetness of sugar, treacle and candy [...] cannot be separately described, [but] must be experienced for oneself."

He warned his readers that: "the profoundly learned in raga, even Matanga and his followers, have not crossed the ocean of raga; how then may one of little understanding swim across?" In the history of ragas, Nanyadeva's predecessor Matanga played a crucial role.

He is quoted by virtually all later scholars as the foremost authority on raga. His Brhaddeshi, completed in about 800 AD, is a landmark in that it reconciles the theory of ancient music (marga), described in earlier works, with the living music (deshi) practised in various regions of India. Matanga's treatise includes musical notations of scales and melodies, and also the first definition of raga: "In the opinion of the wise, that particularity of notes and melodic movements, or that distinction of melodic sound by which one is delighted, is raga."

In other words, ragas have a particular scale and specific melodic movements; their characteristic 'sound' should bring delight and be pleasing to the ear (or the "minds of men," as Matanga puts it elsewhere). But what exactly is a raga? Is it possible to define raga? Virtually every writer on Indian music has struggled with this fundamental question and usually begins by explaining what it is not. As Harold S. Powers puts it: "A raga is not a tune, nor is it a 'modal' scale, but rather a continuum with scale and tune as its extremes." Thus a raga is far more precise and much richer than a scale or mode, and much less fixed than a particular tune.

A raga usually includes quite a large number of traditional songs, composed in different genres by the great musicians of the past. But ragas also allow the present-day creative musician to compose new songs, and to generate an almost infinite variety of melodic sequences. Broadly speaking then, a raga can be regarded as a tonal framework for composition and improvisation; a dynamic musical entity with a unique form, embodying a unique musical idea. As well as the fixed scale, there are features particular to each raga such as the order and hierarchy of its tones, their manner of intonation and ornamentation, their relative strength and duration, and specific approach. Where ragas have identical scales, they are differentiated by virtue of these musical characteristics. Yet ragas are not static.

We shall see that in the fascinating but complex history of ragas, some can be traced back to ancient or medieval times; others originated (or were rediscovered or reinvented) only a few centuries or even a few decades ago. Virtually all ragas, however, have undergone transformations over the centuries, and many of them have fallen into disuse. Most importantly, a raga must evoke a particular emotion or create a certain 'mood,' which is hard to define, however. As the term raga itself implies, it should 'colour' the mind, bring delight, move the listeners and stimulate an emotional response. In other words, the concept of raga, which has evolved over a period of two millennia, eludes an adequate brief definition.

It is an open-ended concept in which the association of a particular raga with a specific emotional state, a season or time of day, though intangible, is as relevant as its melodic structure.

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