Music and Medicine: Healing Brain Injury through Ragas

While music and medicine and music therapy are now widely practised in the hospitals in the western countries, India is very much lagging behind in such pursuits, despite the rich tradition of ragas in Indian classical music. Encouraged by the successful implementation and researches on western music as a therapeutic tool in the developed countries, this study was undertaken based on Hindustani ragas on Indian patients. The implications of the present findings will definitely encourage other professional statisticians and medical community to come forward and collaborate with doctors in different areas of medicine and promoting and establishing music and music therapy as a profession in India. Last but not the least, music – especially classical music – has the power to improve one’s conscience and hence can help us in becoming a better human being. The methodology adopted in the study has been widely practiced in deciding on the medical treatment for the specific situations in the case of neurological studies as well. It is hoped that this study will pave the way for more such studies in the area of music therapy.