Soumya Chakravarti's

non-profit music page offering field-recordings of

the traditional folk music of India

``Humlog daulat se garib hai, par geet-baja se amir hai'' (``We are poor in wealth, but rich in music'')

-- A Munda musician

The people whose music you will hear in these pages have little or no idea about the Internet. We who use the Internet know little about these people and their music. This is a modest beginning to bring a rich and ancient cultural medium to a rich and modern medium. If you have collections of authentic folk music from India please share them with us here.

You need RealPlayer to listen to the music on this page.
Download the free RealOnePlayer here.
(Look at the upper righthand corner of the RealPlayer screen.)

Windows Mediaplayer version (for Win 98, Win 2000 & Win ME) of this music is coming soon.
Thanks for your patience.

 
 

Music of the Bauls of W. Bengal and Bangladesh

Music of the Fakirs of W. Bengal and Bangladesh

Music of the PAT(scroll)-painters of Medinipur, West Bengal

Music of the Munda people of Ranchi, Jharkhand

Nagpuri music of Jharkhand

Bhawaia Music of Northern Bengal

We were trained as scientists and educators in India and in the West. We are fortunate to also have been exposed to (some parts of) rural India, its people, and their magnificent music. We have helped and learnt from eminent folk music collectors, musicians and performers in India, walking and travelling many miles with tape-recorders to collect and to preserve what we feel is a medium under the threat of obliteration. Now we would like to present to you a flavour of those riches through the Internet. Please contact us for more information.

The sample music on this page are from the holdings of the Folk Music & Folklore Research Institute (Calcutta), and private collections of Soumya Chakravarti, Sarbari Roy Chowdhury (Santiniketan), and Carol Salomon (Seattle).

We thank Khaled Choudhury, Sarbari Roy Chowdhury, and Carol Salomon for their kind permission and gratefully acknowledge their cooperation

Kind thanks to Prof. Palash B. Pal for making available on the web Bangla TeX, which was used in creating the texts of the songs.

Questions/comments: schakravartiATgmailDOTcom

© Soumya Chakravarti. The material presented on this page may not be used for commercial purposes.

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