Exploring Symbolism of Ragas on Costume and Designing Contemporary Wear

Indian classical music is one of the ancient art forms in the world. Apart from being deeply spiritual, it also offers a rich visual and cultural experience. Ragas are an integral part of Indian classical music which is a set of minimum 5 notes set in a certain progression with emphasis on certain notes, creating a specific mood or depicting certain emotions which are largely associated with the time and season in which they are sung, Character of the notes and dominant notes in a Raga. This study was undertaken to explore the symbolism of 6 principle ragas associated with 6 different seasons in nature. Symbolism was studied for Seasons, emotions, time and color associated with Raga Bhairav, Megh, Malkauns, Hindol, Shree, and Deepak. This symbolism was correlated with costumes to design contemporary garments, using Indian fabrics like Ikkat, Kalamkari, Ahimsa Silk, Chiffon, Batik etc. These were further analyzed by musicians, students and faculty in the fashion field. From this study, it was found that there is the association between the nature of Raga and mood created by the same. The creative process of designing a garment can be influenced by the sensory experience created by different ragas in Indian classical music which had an influence on color, texture, silhouette, and embellishment of the garment.