Raag Rang: Colourful Melodies

Activity: Concert
Host: Moray House Trust
Date: Tuesday 3rd May 2016

RAAG RANG set to music the work of poets, such as Kabir Das, Amir Khusrao, Bulleh Shah and Rabindranath Tagore.

Kabir Das (1440-1518) was a mystical poet and great Saint of India. Amīr Khusrow, a Sufi mystic, was an Indian musician, scholar and poet of Persian descent. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. Bulleh Shah’s writings represent him as a humanist, someone providing solutions to the sociological problems of the world around him, describing the turbulence his motherland of Punjab is passing through, while concurrently searching for God. His poetry highlights his mystical spiritual voyage through the four stages of Sufism.

“Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them” said Rabindranath Tagore. Often hailed as Gurudev or the poet of poets, Tagore is one of the most widely acclaimed wordsmiths of India.

One of the highlights of the evening was the launching of one of Lalbihari Sharma’s Chowtaals (which featured in Gaiutra Bahadur’s book, Coolie Woman, the Odyssey of Adventure). Lalbihari Sharma was born in Chapra village in the United Provinces of India (now Bihar). As his name suggests, he belonged to the Brahmin caste. He was indentured by the British East India Company to work the sugarcane fields as a manual laborer and published his collection of chautal folksongs in 1916. The song has been ‘reconstructed’ from the traditional chowtaal style of singing to a more upbeat Bhojpuri style.

Indus Voices is an Indian cultural group whose primary goal is the preservation of the roots of Indian music in Guyana.

Video clips of this event will be available shortly.