Music of Rajasthan

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|

Tyagaraja, known for his extensive contributions to Carnatic music

Music of India
Genres

Traditional

* Classical
* Carnatic
* Odissi
* Hindustani
* Folk
* Borgeet
* Baul
* Bhajan
* Kirtana
* Shyama Sangeet
* Ramprasadi
* Rabindra Sangeet
* Nazrul Geeti
* Dwijendrageeti
* Atulprasadi
* Prabhat Samgiita
* Thumri
* Dadra
* Chaiti
* Kajari
* Sufi
* Ghazal
* Qawwali
* Sikh

Modern

* Bhangra
* Bhangragga
* Filmi
* Bollywood
* Ghazal
* Qawwali
* Goa trance
* Dance
* Indi-pop
* Asian Underground
* Jazz
* Rock
* Bengali
* Raga
* Hip hop

Media and performance
|  Music awards

* Filmfare Awards
* Sangeet Natak Akademi Award

Music festivals

* Saptak Festival of Music
* Chennai Music Season
* Dover Lane music festival
* Purandaradasa Aradhana
* Tyagaraja Aradhana
* Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan

Music media

* Sruti
* The Record

Nationalistic and patriotic songs
|  National anthem

Jana Gana Mana
Other
Vande Mataram
Regional music

* Andaman and Nicobar Islands
* Andhra Pradesh
* Arunachal Pradesh
* Assam
* Bihar (Maithili)
* Chhattisgarh
* Goa
* Gujarat
* Haryana
* Himachal Pradesh
* Jammu and Kashmir
* Ladakh
* Jharkhand
* Karnataka
* Kerala
* Madhya Pradesh
* Maharashtra
* Manipur
* Meghalaya
* Mizoram
* Nagaland
* Odisha
* Punjab (Folk)
* Rajasthan
* Sikkim
* Tamil Nadu
* Ancient
* Tripura
* Uttar Pradesh
* Uttarakhand
* West Bengal

* v
* t
* e

This type of music originates from the Rajasthan, one of the states of India and home to several important centers of Indian musical development, including Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur. The region's music shares similarities both with nearby areas of India and the other side of the border, in the Pakistani province of Sindh.[1]

## Overview

[edit]

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 audiences and styles, and the Manganiars, who had a more liberal approach.

Rajasthani artists

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 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.[2] This collection is available digitally through the UCLA library.[3]

### List of Rajasthani folk singers

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One of the most famous Rajasthani Maand singers is Allah Jilai Bai of the Bikaner Gharana.

* Allah Jilai Bai
* Kutle Khan
* Kheta Khan
* Mame Khan[4]
* Seema Mishra
* Prakash Mali
* Satkeer
* Chotu Singh Rawna
* Anupriya Lakhawat
* Hemraj Goyal
* Dapu Khan
* Ila Arun

## See also

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* Jaipur-Atrauli gharana
* Rapperiya Baalam
* Musical Instruments of Rajasthan
* Veena Music

## References

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1. ^ "Rajasthan's musical festival, Singing Sand to open from November 22nd". Hindustan Times. 11 November 2024. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
2. ^ "Recordings of Hereditary Musicians of Western Rajasthan | Modern Endangered Archives Program". meap.library.ucla.edu. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
3. ^ "MEAP Rajasthan Collection". digital.library.ucla.edu. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
4. ^ "'Jadd jodti hai, todti nahi,' says Mame Khan, an artist reviving Rajasthan's folk legacy on a global stage". The Indian Express. 24 December 2024. Retrieved 20 April 2025.

## External links

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* The Modern Endangered Archives Program 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.

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