Impact Of Indian Classical Ragas On Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, And Audio-Visual Reaction Time on Young Adults.

Nature has bestowed upon mankind with innumerable sounds, vibrations and energies. Our Indian Classical Music is one of the byproducts of this gift of nature. Raga is a combination of notes in an ascending or descending order.1 Every raga has a unique essence, feeling(rasa), and emotional content(bhava).2 Listening to the right raga at the right time is said to smoothen the natural transitions and attune the body and mind to the circadian cycle.3 Music has been reported to decrease blood pressure, heart rate (HR), respiration rate, anxiety and pain with improved quality of sleep, pre competition stress in athletes etc. in many research studies.4 The vagus nerve, cranial nerve X, is located near the eardrum and responds to musical vibrations by triggering the body to relax. This pathway may explain the study observations which found lower systolic blood pressure after listening to slow, classical music.5

Reaction time measurement is an indirect index of processing capability of central nervous system and simple means of determining sensory motor association and performance of an individual.6 Cognitive disorders, like Alzheimer’s disease, Attention deficit disorder, Dementia, Epilepsy-related cognitive dysfunction all deals with slow Reaction time. So Indian classical music can be used in disorder that is characterized by perception, information processing, or motor problems. Indian ragas could be a safe alternative for many medical interventions.7

Diverse ragas exhibit varying impacts on our physiological systems, yet this research specifically examines the influence of Raga Bhairavi and Bhupali. In the literature, Raga Bhairavi has been known to induce calmness and spiritual well-being significantly.2 The Raga Bhupali, equivalent to the Lydian mode of Western music instills the shringara rasa or aesthetic mood of love within the listener.3 It is a great raga to bring us back to a calm state.7

Although music is predominantly utilized for religious, enjoyment or entertainment purposes, it is gradually emerging as a promising non-pharmacological intervention for improving health outcomes in both healthy and diseased populations, especially in those with cardiovascular diseases.8

This study was envisioned to assess the impact of classical ragas on cardiovascular and cognitive function, for the probable utilization of these ragas as adjuvant therapy in regulating cardiovascular and cognitive parameters.