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Bengali Culture
The culture of Bengal defines the cultural heritage of the Bengali people native to eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, mainly what is today Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura, where they form the dominant ethnolinguistic group and the Bengali language is the official and primary language. Bengal has a recorded history of 1,400 years. After the partition, Bangladeshi culture became distinct from the mainstream Bengali culture, thus their culture evolved differently, still there are many commonalities in Bangladeshi culture & West Bengali culture which connects them both together as Bengali culture. The Bengalis are the dominant ethnolinguistic group. The Bengal region has been a historical melting point, blending indigenous traditions with cosmopolitan influences from pan-Indian subcontinental empires. Dhaka (Dacca) became the capital of Mughal Bengal (Bengal Subah) and the commercial (financial) capital (1610-1757) of Mughal India. Dhaka ...
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Globalization And World Cities Research Network
The Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) is a British think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization. It is based in the geography department of Loughborough University in Leicestershire, United Kingdom. GaWC was founded by Peter J. Taylor in 1998. Together with Jon Beaverstock and Richard G. Smith, they create the GaWC's biennial categorization of world cities into "Alpha", "Beta" and "Gamma" tiers. The three tiers are further divided into subgroupings using plus and minus signs. The categorization is based upon the author's views of "international connectedness", primarily shown through a regions advanced services firms, such as in accountancy, finance and law). GaWC city classification The GaWC examines cities worldwide to narrow them down to a roster of world cities, then ranks these based on their connectivity through four "advanced producer services": accountancy, advertising, banking/finance, and law ...
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Bhatiali
Bhatiali is a type of ancient folk music which expresses the deep feeling from the heart of a group of local and professional people. It is based on their common and natural style of expression and uninfluenced by the rules of conventional music and contemporary songs. Bhatiali song expresses not only loss, pain and memory but also the human understanding of nature. Bhatiyali songs are a genre of folk ballads originating from the riverine regions of Bengal, which have a strong ecological connection. Bhatiali or ''bhatiyali'' () is a form of bengali folk music, sung in both Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. The word 'Bhatiali' came from the bengali word "Bhata", which means the low tide of any river or ocean. The Bhatiali songs are basically sung by the boatmen who are known as "Majhi" or "Mallahs" while going down streams of the river. It is mostly sung in several parts of greater riparian Bengal delta. Researchers have claimed Mymensingh District along the Brahmaputra Rive ...
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Gombhira
Gombhira, Gambhira or Gamvira () is a type of Bengali folk song and dance originating in the Bengal region, from what is known today as northwestern Bangladesh and north eastern West Bengal, India. In West Bengal (India), gombhira performances are centred around the Malda District whereas Chapai Nawabganj District is the main centre of Gambhira performances in Bangladesh. The tradition is also popular in the nearby districts of Rajshahi and Naogaon. It is performed with a particularly distinctive rhythm and dance with two performers, always personifying a man and his maternal grandfather, discussing a topic to raise social awareness. Gambhira mask The Gambhira dance is performed all over the Malda district Malda district, also spelt Maldah or Maldaha (, , often ), is a district in West Bengal, India. The capital of the Bengal Sultanate, Gauda and Pandua, was situated in this district. Mango, jute and silk are the most notable products of this ... of North Ben ...
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Lalon Shah
Lalon (; died 17 October 1890), also known as Lalon Shah, Lalon Fakir, Shahji, was a Bengali spiritual leader, philosopher, mystic poet and social reformer. Regarded as an icon of Bengali culture, he inspired and influenced many philosophers, poets and social thinkers including Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Allen Ginsberg. Lalon's philosophy of humanity rejects all distinctions of caste, class, and creed and takes stand against theological conflicts and racism. It denies all worldly affairs in search of the soul and embodied the socially transformative role of sub-continental Bhakti and Sufism. Lalon founded the institute known as Lalon Akhra in Cheuriya, about from Kushtia railway station in southwestern Bangladesh. His disciples dwell mostly in Bangladesh and Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam’s Barak valley. Every year on the occasion of his death anniversary, thousands of his disciples and followers assemble at Lalon Akhra and pay homage to hi ...
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Baul
The Baul () are a group of mystic minstrels of mixed elements of Sufism and Vaishnavism from different parts of Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley and Meghalaya. Bauls constitute both a religious syncretism, syncretic religious sect of troubadours and a musical tradition. Bauls are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of Vaishnavism, Vaishnava Hindus and Sufism, Sufi Muslims. They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments. Lalon, Lalon Shah is regarded as the most celebrated Baul saint in history. Although Bauls constitute only a small fraction of the Bengali population, their influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the "Baul tradition of Bangladesh" was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
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Sarod
The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet, overtone-rich texture of the sitar, with sympathetic strings that give it a resonant, reverberant quality. A fretless instrument, it can produce the continuous slides between notes known as '' meend'' (glissandi), which are important in Indian music. Origins The word sarod was introduced from Persian during the late Mughal Empire and is much older than the Indian musical instrument. It can be traced back to ''sorūd'' meaning "song", "melody", "hymn" and further to the Persian verb ''sorūdan'', which correspondingly means "to sing", "to play a musical instrument", but also means "to compose". Alternatively, the shahrud may have given its name to the sarod. The Persian word šāh-rūd is made up of ''šāh'' (shah or king) and ''rūd'' ...
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Tabla
A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments and vocals, or as a part of larger ensembles. It is frequently played in popular and folk music performances in India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.Tabla
Encyclopædia Britannica
The tabla is an essential instrument in the bhakti devotional traditions of Hinduism and Sikhism, such as during ''bhajan'' and ''kirtan'' singing. It is one of the main qawwali instruments used by Sufi musicians. The instrument is also featured in dance performances such as Kathak. Tabla is a rhythmic instrument. The word ''tabla'' likely comes from ''tabl'', the Arabic word for drum.
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Sitar
The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau Khan, an 18th-century figure of the Mughal Empire has been identified by modern scholarship as the inventor of the sitar. According to most historians, he developed the sitar from the setar, an Iranian instrument of Abbasid or Safavid origin. Used widely throughout the Indian subcontinent, the sitar became popularly known in the wider world through the works of Ravi Shankar, beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The advent of Psychedelia, psychedelic culture during the mid-to-late 1960s set a trend for the use of the sitar in popular music, sitar in Western popular music, with the instrument appearing on tracks by bands such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Metallica and many others. Etymology The word ''sitar'' is derived from t ...
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Ali Akbar Khan
Ali Akbar Khan (14 April 192218 June 2009) was an Indian Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Trained as a classical musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, he also composed numerous classical ''ragas'' and film scores. He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967, which moved with him to the United States and is now based in San Rafael, California, with a branch in Basel, Switzerland. Khan was instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer and as a teacher. He first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later settled in California. He was an adjunct professor of music at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Khan was accorded India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989. Nominated five times for the Grammy Award, Khan was also a recipient o ...
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Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitar, sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known expert of Hindustani classical music, Indian classical music in the second half of the 20th century, and influenced many musicians in India and throughout the world. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999. He is also the father of American singer Norah Jones and British-American musician and sitar player Anoushka Shankar. Shankar was born to a Bengalis, Bengali family in India, and spent his youth as a dancer touring India and Europe with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. At age 18, he gave up dancing to pursue a career in music, studying the sitar for seven years under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the ''Apu Tr ...
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Alauddin Khan
Ustad Allauddin Khan (8 October 1862 – 6 September 1972), was a Bengali sarod player and multi-instrumentalist, composer and one of the most notable music teachers of the 20th century in Indian classical music. For a generation many of his students, across different instruments like sitar and violin, dominated Hindustani classical music and became one of the most famous exponents of the form ever, including his son Ali Akbar Khan. Early life Khan was born to a Bengali Muslim family in Shibpur village in Brahmanbaria (in present-day Bangladesh). His father, Sabdar Hossain Khan, was a musician. Khan took his first music lessons from his elder brother, Fakir Aftabuddin Khan. At age ten, Khan ran away from home to join a jatra party where he was exposed to a variety of folk genres: jari, sari, baul, bhatiyali, kirtan, and panchali. Khan went to Kolkata, where he met a physician named Kedarnath, who helped him to become a disciple of Gopal Krishna Bhattacharya (also known as Nul ...
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