Music of Himachal Pradesh

The music of Himachal Pradesh includes many kinds of folk songs from the area, many of which are sung without accompaniment.

Styles

External videos
Dev Taal of Jubbal-Rohru
Dev Taal of Kotkhai-Theog

Jhoori is a type of song that celebrates extramarital romance.The word means lover . It is popular in Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur, and is accompanied by a female dance called jhoomar.

Laman songs from Kullu Valley are another type of love song.

Saṃskāra songs are sung at festivals and celebrations by women of Himachal Pradesh. These songs are based on ragas, which are compositions of Indian classical music, as are the martial jhanjhotis.

Ainchaliyan are religious songs, sung at the bride's house after a wedding and by women at the home of an unmarried girl.

In Chamba-Pangi, wandering musicians play a khanjari (tambourine) and perform, also using string puppets.

Musical instruments

Percussion

Himachal Pradesh folk music features a wide variety of drums, including dammama, damanght, gajju, doru, dhaunsa, nagara, dholku, nagarth, tamaka, dafale, dhol, dolki and hudak. Non-drum percussion instruments include the ghanta and ghariyal (gongs), chimta (tongs),[1] manjira and jhanjh (cymbals), ghungru (bells), thali (platter) and kokatha murchang.

Winds

There are also wind instruments like algoja/algoza (twin flutes), peepni, shehnai (oboe), bishudi (flute), karnal (straight brass trumpet) and ranasingha (curved brass trumpet).

Strings

String instruments include gramyang, riwana (a small fretless lute), sarangi (bowed lute), jumang, ruman, ektara and kindari davatra.

Singers

Mohit Chauhan's 'morni', Karnail Rana's various folk songs, Dheeraj's love songs and Thakur Das Rathi's 'Naatis' has given great contribution to the music of Himachal Pradesh. New initiatives like Mountain Music Project and Laman are giving Himachali folk a contemporary sound. Others like Som Dutt Battu, a Padma Shri awardee, popularised the folk music and vocal classical music of Himachal Pradesh.[2][3]

Modern Himachali Music

Some of the recent theatre and music personalities like GS Chani and his son Gyan have documented the music of the ethnic communities of the Himalayas, including Himachal, and have created documentaries preserving the rich oral traditions with modern mix to reflect the many aspects of the life, the hardships, loneliness, cosmology, nature, love of the people living in the Himalayas. [4]

Comments

Kangana Ranaut, an Indian actress and politician, raised about the dying Himachal Pradesh music in the parliament. She said: "I would also like to add that the folk music of Himachal Pradesh, especially the tribal music from Spiti, Kinnaur and Bharmour, and their folk and art forms are also on the verge on extinction."[5]

References

  1. ^ "Chimta, a musical instrument, was also played by Shirdi Sai Baba". The Hindu. 26 May 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 28 February 2026.
  2. ^ "For state's sole Padma winner Battu, music is food for soul". The Tribune. Retrieved 28 February 2026.
  3. ^ News18 Punjab (2 May 2016). Shaksiyat-Prof. Somdutt Battu-Famous Classical Music Singer-HP-On 1st May 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2026 – via YouTube.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "The Answer is Blowing in the Wind". The Indian Express. 3 March 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2026.
  5. ^ "Kangana Ranaut gives her first speech in Parliament, talks about art and folk music of Himachal Pradesh. Watch". Hindustan Times. 25 July 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2026.
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