Bare Bones Raga Guide:
The heuristic value of classification by Wim van der Meer
Conclusions
The question of raga determination or recognition confronts us once again with the fact that the theory of Indian music still has great scope for development.
Theories of tone material are based on assumptions that have no scientific fundament. In fact there is a bewildering variety of tone materials that help a great deal in distinguishing between ragas. At the same time it would be easy to imagine yet a much vaster number of scales on which to base ragas. Why are some scales used and other imaginable scales not? Why are some scales used for several, even dozens of ragas? We don't need much to realize that the most used scales have some sort of symmetrical distribution of notes over the octave with most of the notes having a fifth relation to another note in the scale. No raga is based on the heptonic scale SRRGGMM# (CDbDEbEFF#). A fragmentary contribution to de development of scales is found in Jairazbhoy's The Rags of North Indian Music. And both Bose and Daniélou invented theories of just intonation that are as complex as they are fantastic. But a general theory of scales in Indian music is still missing.
Some prominent concepts in the theory of Indian music, of which I particularly mentioned vadi-samvadi, can hardly be operationalized. We would be served better with pragmatic definitions of the function of notes in phrases. Unfortunately, there is no theory of phrasing, even if it is one of the most important elements of musical practice. Integral part of a study of phrasing would be a better understanding of ornamentation. In particular, we may come to realize that the extensive studies on intonation (shruti) are complete fiction and that the contemporary practice of shruti should be understood as a form of tonal shape. Between theory and practice the proverbial abyss keeps yawning. The reason for this disparity is obviously that theoreticians keep basing themselves on ancient and outdated concepts.