Raga Malkauns: Alap And Gat In Jhaptal

Raga Malkauns: Alap And Gat In Jhaptal is a 34-minute-50-second instrumental composition performed by sitarist Vijay Raghav Rao and tabla player Alla Rakha. The track appears as the first piece on the album Flute & Sitar Music Of India: Meditational Ragas, released on CD by LaserLight Digital in 1993.

The recording features a rendition of Raga Malkauns, a pentatonic raga in the Hindustani classical tradition. The performance follows a two-part structure: an alap (unmetered improvisational introduction) and a gat (composed melody) set in Jhaptal, a 10-beat rhythmic cycle. Rao plays the sitar as the primary melodic instrument, while Rakha provides percussive accompaniment on the tabla. The album title references meditative ragas, though specific contextual details about the recording sessions or production remain undocumented.

The release belongs to a series of compilations distributed by LaserLight Digital in the 1990s, which aimed to introduce Western audiences to Indian classical music. No additional liner notes or alternate versions of this track are publicly verified. The collaboration between Rao and Rakha on this album marks one of several recorded interactions between the artists, though the full scope of their joint work is not comprehensively cataloged.