The Ragavibodha is a masterpiece on musicology from the 17th century. It was composed by Somanatha to address the existing contradictions between the ancients' theory and prevailing performance practices; thus making it an indispensable treatise, to be included in the Kalamulasastra series of the IGNCA.
Somanatha is by far the most important and the most original of all the sixteenth and seventeenth century writers on music as he produced the Ragauibodha, an outstanding treatise on the subject. The Riigavibodha is a distinctive text because it is embellished with a contemporaneous auto commentary by the composer himself, making it easier to comprehend his theory and viewpoint. It also has the author's music illustrations that reflect the music of his time and serve as a bridge between the music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and that of the present-day. Moreover in this treatise, the author has invented twenty-three notational symbols and names for the Vadanabhedas that he has culled from the ancients' legacy of gamakas etc.; thus rendering it as the first work in the textual tradition that has attempted the aural possibility of visible symbols.
In the present edition of the Ragauibodha of Somanatha, Dr. Ranganayaki Ayyangar has given an authentic text and complemented it with a faithful and lucid English translation. She also has painstakingly illustrated the musical notations of Somangtha by herself, which are reproduced in the appendix.
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