The concept of painting melodic modes (rāgas) constitutes a unique genre of Indian painting. What was its genesis? How was it that an abstract form (amūrtarūpa) transformed into a concrete form (mūrtarūpa) in a material medium? This paper is divided into two parts; the first part addresses a brief history of Indian music, the antiquity of the rāga form it seeks to investigate and the relationship between music and rāgacitras. The second part deals with the case study of Rāgiṇī Bhairavī.