This book offers an engaging and accessible journey into Indian music by blending art, science, and human experience into a single narrative. Rather than treating music only as a cultural tradition, it presents it as a fascinating system of sound, emotion, and meaning that connects the physical world with the human mind.Beginning with the roots of Indian music, the book traces how natural sounds gradually evolved into structured forms like raga and taal, shaped by human perception and emotion. It then highlights the groundbreaking work of Sir C V Raman, who revealed the hidden science behind Indian musical instruments, showing how traditional designs embody complex acoustic principles.The narrative moves into modern scientific research in music, exploring the role of institutions such as the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Sir C V Raman Centre for Physics and Music and Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra therein. These three institutes have demonstrated how ancient musical knowledge can interact with contemporary tools like signal processing, neuroscience, computational musicology and artificial intelligence. Studies on brain responses to music, for instance, show how ragas can influence emotions and cognition in measurable ways.At its heart, the book argues that music exists at the intersection of sound and consciousness. By combining physics, psychology, statistics, audio signal processing and cultural insight, it invites readers to see music not just as something we hear, but as a powerful medium that shapes how we think, feel, and connect with the world.
Ranjan Sengupta
Dr Ranjan Sengupta, a PhD in High Energy Physics from Jadavpur University, was the Senior Research Scientist and Head, Scientific Research Department, ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata, India, for 27 years. From 2010 he is associated with associated with Sir C V Raman Centre for Physics and Music, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India as a Scientific Consultant (Honorary). He has published more than 150 papers in the area of High Energy Physics, Music Signal Processing, Speaker Recognition, Music Information Retrieval, Music Perception and Cognition and Music Acoustics. Recipient of Sir C V Raman Award twice from Acoustical Society of India. He was the Co-Supervisor for four PhD students who completed their PhD from Sir C V Raman Centre. At present he is the PhD Co-Supervisor of a student pursuing her research at the Centre. Dr Sengupta is a life Fellow of the Acoustical Society of India and a Life Member of Indian Physical Society and Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.
Email: sgranjan@gmail.com
Affiliation: Sir CV Raman Centre for Physics and Music, Jadavpur
University, Kolkata-700032, West Bengal, India
Shankha Sanyal
Dr Shankha Sanyal is a Senior Research Associate at Sir C V Raman Centre for Physics and Music, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He is a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neurophysics from the Department of Physics, Jadavpur University. His primary research focuses on the neuro-scientific basis of emotion perception and cognition in Indian music and languages. Dr Sanyal has over 80 published papers in the domain of Cognitive Neuroscience and the Neurocognition of Speech and Music, utilizing nonlinear physics techniques like Fractals and Multifractals to analyze brain signals (EEG) and acoustic properties. He has been awarded the Sir C V Raman Award by the Acoustical Society of India.
Dipak Ghosh
Prof. (Dr ) Dipak Ghosh, a University Gold medalist and a Ph.D. in High Energy Physics, is presently an Emeritus Professor at the Sir C V Raman Centre for Physics and Music, and Director (Hony.) of the Biren Roy Research Laboratory for Radioactivity and Earthquake Studies, Jadavpur University. Formerly, he was a Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Science, Jadavpur University. Prof. Ghosh has received several awards like the S.N. Bose Memorial Medal, C V Raman Award by the University Grants Commission etc. in recognition of his in-depth research work. He was the Principal Investigator from India in projects with prestigious research institutes like CERN and FERMI Lab. He has over five hundred publications in reputed international journals and several books to his credit. His research interests include nuclear and particle physics, nonlinear dynamics applied to biomedical problems, and neuro-cognition of music. He has also served as a reviewer for international journals like Physical Review Letters, Physica A, EPL etc.
Soubhik Chakraborty
Primarily a statistician, Soubhik Chakraborty is currently a Professor and formerly Head in the department of Mathematics, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. His research interests are algorithm and music analysis involving extensive use of computational statistics. He has been guiding several research scholars leading to PhD in these areas and has published over 100 papers, 4 books and 7 research monographs. He is also an acknowledged reviewer associated with ACM, IEEE and AMS. Himself an amateur harmonium player and a former flutist, his recently published book Computational Musicology in Hindustani Music, joint with Prof. Guerino Mazzola (School of Music, University of Minnesota, USA) and Chakraborty’s own PhD scholars Dr Swarima Tewari and Dr Moujhuri Patra published by Springer in 2014 is the first book dedicated to the topic. He is also one of the authors of the book Signal Analysis of Hindustani Classical Music, Springer, 2017 jointly authored by Prof. Asoke Kumar Datta of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata and four other co-authors.
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