Rāgas of Hindustani Classical Music (HCM), roughly translated as musical modes, are often personified and ascribed human qualities, including personalities. One of the distinct features of personality traits is that they manifest themselves repeatedly in various contexts. Similarly, a rāga manifests its unique identifiable features through repetitions and variations. On the other hand, tempo, or laya, is an essential component of rāgas, with different rāgas having different prescribed laya. In the context of bade and chote rāgas—rāgas classified as having the ability to be performed for long or short duration based on their complexity and interpretability—among the ascribed identifying attributes are those of rhythm, tempo, and repetitions with variations. In this paper, an attempt is made first to define the key traits of bade and chote rāgas as per tradition, and then to examine their key rhythmic and repeatable features through empirical methods to assess if and how they contribute to the ‘badā-ness’ and ‘chotā-ness’ of rāgas in the context of actual performance of HCM.