Music of South Asia
Hindustani and Carnatic classical raga, Qawwali, Baul mystics of Bengal, Bhangra, Sri Lankan baila, Nepali folk and the sitar, tabla and sarod.
Sung and searched in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Sinhala. The YouTube button above can run your search in that language.
A brief history
Early pioneers
Jayadeva from the Odisha region, who lived around the time period of 1100 A.D., is one of the earliest pioneers of Indian classical music. He was a poet most known for writing the “Gītagovinda,” and gave his poems a musical quality through the principles of raga and tala. His work was representative of Hindu devotional poems and he continues to be honored at religious festivals today.
Ramtanu Pandey, also known as Tansen, changed classical North Indian music by blending ancient Indian styles with Persian and Arabian influences. He was from the modern-day Madhya Pradesh region of India around 1500. As a musician, Tansen created new ragas such as Darbadri Todi and Mian-ki-Mallar. He may have created the new instrument known as the rabāb, but this is most likely untrue with little evidence to support this. Abu’l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau, or Amīr Khusrau (1295-1316 A.D.), was a poet and musician born in the modern-day Uttar Pradesh region of India.
Popular music
Modern
Ali Akbar Khan (April 14, 1922 - June 18, 2009) was born in Bengal presidency, British India and was a composer recognized for his music on the sarod. He popularized Indian classical music by bringing it to the West and was recognized for his contributions to music with a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1991. He also composed music for cinema, such as for Devi (1960).
Ravi Shankar (April 7, 1920 - December 7, 2012) was a musician and composer from Varanasi, India (previously known as Benares). He was known for his music on the sitar and also helped to bring Indian classical music to the West by collaborating with popular Western artists Yehudi Menuhin, George Harrison, John Coltrane, and Philip Glass. He also composed for the Apu film series (1955-1969). He was recognized with Grammy Awards for his West Meets East (1966) album and the Praemium Imperiale music award in 1997. His children are all associated with music and his daughters Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones are also Grammy Award recipients.
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