# Indian Religious Music



## ziesha

Hi everyone, I'm from India, I like Indian Religious music also, those who understand the respective language, they can enjoy Vinod Aggarwal Ji's bhajans !


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## Morimur

ziesha said:


> Hi everyone, I'm from India, I like Indian Religious music also, those who understand the respective language, they can enjoy Vinod Aggarwal Ji's bhajans !


I am an avid listener of Indian Classical music (Carnatic & Hindustani). My collection is always growing. Do you like Shivkumar Sharma?


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## millionrainbows

My favorite Indian artists are:

Ravi Shankar (sitar, composer)
Ali Akbar Khan (sarod)
Bismillah Khan (shenai, a double-reed wind instrument similar to a small oboe, and capable of note-bending)
Lashmi Shankar (female voice)

Some favorite albums:


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## Lukecash12

millionrainbows said:


> My favorite Indian artists are:
> 
> Ravi Shankar (sitar, composer)
> Ali Akbar Khan (sarod)
> Bismillah Khan (shenai, a double-reed wind instrument similar to a small oboe, and capable of note-bending)
> Lashmi Shankar (female voice)
> 
> Some favorite albums:


Lakshmi has a very sweet and piercing voice. For me the Dagar brothers singing in Dhrupad Ragas like Kedar is the pinnacle of ICM.


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## millionrainbows

Also, for the really "religious" aspect of India's music, Vedic chant needs to be explored. Here is my introduction to this aspect:


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## Lukecash12

millionrainbows said:


> Also, for the really "religious" aspect of India's music, Vedic chant needs to be explored. Here is my introduction to this aspect:


I like your reference but at the same time it's a little funny to me that you think a person from India who is familiar with Vinod Aggarwal will find Ravi Shankar's work to be an unfamiliar revelation. Maybe it wasn't addressed directly at the OP though, rather at the general topic, and I don't mean to step on your toes it just made me laugh a little bit. Westerners act a lot of times like Shankar is a revelation and my Indian friends enjoy the reference but they roll their eyes in good humor as well, I'm sure our friend here has grown up listening to big folk names like Omnarthakur, Sarahang, the Dagar brothers, etc.

Btw, ragas *are* often religious, just as much so as other examples like Vedic liturgical chants or aum chanting. Raga kedar which I supplied in my earlier post here is a raag based on one of the Upanishads. In a lot of ways, these three are considered all in the same thought in India: the scriptures (which were written in poetic/musical verse), the development of liturgical music, and the subsequent development of ICM (Hindustani and Carnatic classical music and arts).


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## millionrainbows

Lukecash12 said:


> I like your reference but at the same time it's a little funny to me that you think a person from India who is familiar with Vinod Aggarwal will find Ravi Shankar's work to be an unfamiliar revelation. Maybe it wasn't addressed directly at the OP though, rather at the general topic, and I don't mean to step on your toes it just made me laugh a little bit. Westerners act a lot of times like Shankar is a revelation and my Indian friends enjoy the reference but they roll their eyes in good humor as well, I'm sure our friend here has grown up listening to big folk names like Omnarthakur, Sarahang, the Dagar brothers, etc.
> 
> Btw, ragas *are* often religious, just as much so as other examples like Vedic liturgical chants or aum chanting. Raga kedar which I supplied in my earlier post here is a raag based on one of the Upanishads. In a lot of ways, these three are considered all in the same thought in India: the scriptures (which were written in poetic/musical verse), the development of liturgical music, and the subsequent development of ICM (Hindustani and Carnatic classical music and arts).


Uhh, 10-4, Eleanor, gotcha. Did it ever occur to anyone that I might happen to _adore_ Ravi Shankar, and didn't just mention him out of ignorance?


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## schigolch

I also love Indian classical music, both Carnatic and Hindustani. Incidentally, I love Lakshmi Shankar's voice and the Dhrupad genre (and the Dagar brothers), too. 

Just to mention a different genre from the ones already tackled in the thread, and a little bit lighter, we can listen below to a Kafi. This is both a musical, and a poetry genre, usually in Punjabi and Sindhi, and in their basis we can find Sufi poetry by some revered Sufi poets. It's similar to the somewhat more popular Qawwali.

In this example, we can hear Abida Parveen singing the well-known Sufi poet Bulleh Shah, that lived between the 17th an 18th century, in the Punjab. The accompaniment is very simple, just harmonium and percussion:


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## millionrainbows

schigolch said:


> In this example, we can hear Abida Parveen singing the well-known Sufi poet Bulleh Shah, that lived between the 17th an 18th century, in the Punjab. The accompaniment is very simple, just harmonium and percussion:


Yeah, that's very good. She is spot-on pitch. Interesting. Sufi. They appear to me to be in search of a spiritual experience, not just a belief system. The "mystic" form of Islam.

From WIK:
_While all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God and hope to become close to God in Paradise-after death and after the "Final Judgment"-Sufis also believe that it is possible to draw closer to God and to more fully embrace the Divine Presence in this life. The chief aim of all Sufis is to seek the pleasing of God by working to restore within themselves the primordial state of fitra described in the Qur'an._

So these guys are in congruence with what I am saying is possible: religion can be a tool to enhance our being, and this can be expressed through music.


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## Blake

Really enjoy some Nikhil Banerjee. He really stands out among the other great sitarist.


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## schigolch

I'm very fond of the veena, the ancient instrument mentioned both in the Vedas and the Tirumurai. I once attended a brilliant performance by Rugmini Gopalakrishnan. She plays the Saraswati veena, a version of the instrument created in Tamil Nadu, back in the 17th century:


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## sprigofflowers

Beautiful music. Rahimuddin Khan Dagar leaves the listener no choice but to reflect upon on his or her existence.


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## sprigofflowers

I would love to see a live performance of someone playing the veena. One of the best sounds in the universe.


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