This land, that land. This world and the other. Peehar aur sasuraal. Parents’ home and the beloved’s. This tension and aching pull between ‘here’ and ‘there’ comes through in this well-known song of viraha by the poet Kabir. Sung in a composition made popular by the legendary Kumar Gandharva, Kabir’s description of the longing to go there, to the beloved’s land, and his feeling of being stuck here, in a prison of sensual delights and distractions, tugs at the heart.

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Find lyrics/translation of this song at
http://ajabshahar.com/songs/details/4...
Discover a universe of Bhakti, Sufi, Baul poetry and music at http://www.ajabshahar.org.
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This song was gently and evocatively rendered by Bindhumalini and Vedanth in Bikaner on the 4th night of the Rajasthan Kabir Yatra, a travelling festival which toured 7 villages with 13 singers of Bhakti, Sufi and Baul poetry in February 2012. The Yatra was organized by Lokayan (www.lokayan.org) in partnership with the Kabir Project, Bangalore.

Bindhumalini Narayanswamy is a singer and graphic designer based in Bangalore and Vedanth Bharadwaj is an independent composer, singer and guitarist from Chennai. In their music, the rigour of Carnatic and Hindustani classical music comes together with the western sounds of the guitar with great panache and soul! (www.sunosuno.in). Contact them at [email protected] & [email protected]

This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, a webspace dedicated to mystic poem and song, created by the Kabir Project team (http://www.ajabshahar.org ; http://www.kabirproject.org).

Song Credits:
Vocals: Bindhumalini Narayanswamy
Guitar & Vocals: Vedanth Bharadwaj

Translation: Vipul Rikhi

Video Credits:
Cameras: Smriti Chanchani & Aarthi Parthasarathy
Editing: Piyush Kashyap
Sound: Atirek Pandey
Sub-Titling: Nandini Nayar & Vipul Rikhi
Collection: The Kabir Project

Date of Recording: 26th February, 2012