This type of music originates from the

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

, one of the states of India and home to several important centers of

Indian music Owing to India's vastness and diversity, Indian music encompasses numerous genres in multiple varieties and forms which include classical music, folk, rock, and pop. It has a history spanning several millennia and developed over several ...

al development, including Udaipur,

Jodhpur Jodhpur () is the second-largest city of the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, after its capital Jaipur. As of 2023, the city has a population of 1.83 million. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Jodhpur district and ...

and

Jaipur Jaipur (; , ) is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the List of cities and towns in Rajasthan, largest city of the north-western States and union territories of India, Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had ...

. The region's music shares similarities both with nearby areas of India and the other side of the border, in the

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

i province of

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

Overview

Rajasthan has a diverse collection of musician castes, including Langas, Sapera, Bhopa, and Manganiar. There are two traditional classes of musicians: the Langas, who stuck mostly exclusively to

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

audiences and styles, and the Manganiars, who had a more liberal approach. Traditional music includes the women's Panihari songs, which lyrically describes chores, especially centered on water and wells, both of which are an integral part of Rajasthan's desert culture. Other songs, played by various castes, normally begin with the alap, which sets the tune and is followed by a recital of a couplet (dooba). Epic ballads tell tales of heroes like Devnarayan Bhagwan, Gogaji, Ramdeoji, Pabuji and Tejaji. The celebration of changing seasons is also very central to folk music of Rajasthan. Celebration of the coming of the

Monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

or the harvest season are central to most traditional folk songs. Songs also revolve around daily activities of the local people-- for instance, a song about not sowing Jeera ( Cumin) as it is difficult to tend. Or, for instance, another song about Podina ( Mint) and how it is liked by various members of the family (an allegorical reference to a local liquor extracted from mint is also made). Every day common themes are the center of traditional rajasthani folk music. Komal Kothari was a pioneering scholar who worked for roughly 25 years researching and recording the local practices of Western Rajasthan musicians. The Modern Endangered Archives Program funded a team at the Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology (ARCE) at the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) to digitize nearly 1200 sound recordings documenting ballads, oral epics and storytelling by hereditary musician castes. This collection is available digitally through the UCLA library.

List of Rajasthani folk singers

One of the most famous Rajasthani Maand singers is

Allah Jilai Bai Allah Jilai Bai (1 February 1902 – 3 November 1992) was a folk singer from Rajasthan, India. Early life Born in Bikaner to a family of singers, by the age of 10 she was singing in the Durbar of Maharaja Ganga Singh. She took singing lessons ...

of the Bikaner Gharana. *

* Kutle Khan *Kheta Khan * Mame Khan * Seema Mishra *Prakash Mali * Satkeer *Chotu Singh Rawna *Anupriya Lakhawat *Hemraj Goyal * Dapu Khan * Ila Arun *

References

External Links

* The Modern Endangered Archives Progra
Recordings of Hereditary Musicians of Western Rajasthan
collection is available through the UCLA Library. * ''Monograph on Langas: a folk musician caste of Rajasthan''. by Komal Kothari. 1960. * ''Folk musical instruments of Rajasthan: a folio'', by Komal Kothari. Rajasthan Institute of Folklore, 1977. * ''Bards, ballads and boundaries: an ethnographic atlas of music traditions in West Rajasthan'', by Daniel Neuman, Shubha Chaudhuri, Komal Kothari. Seagull, 2007. {{ISBN, 1-905422-07-5.

Overview

List of Rajasthani folk singers

See also

References

External Links