India’s incredible cultural diversity has produced innumerable different style of folk arts. Every state in India has its own folk traditions.<\/p>\n
Indian folk music is passed down from generation to generation in a family or community and is played or sung at religious festivals and rites of passage such as births, marriages and deaths.<\/p>\n
Most of the instruments used in folk music are different from those used in classical music. A few, like the tabla, harmonium and the sarangi, are common to both.<\/p>\n
Here is a selection of Indian folk music.<\/p>\n
Rajasthan has a diverse collection of musician communities, including langas, saperas, bhopas, and Manganiyars.<\/p>\n
The Langas are a community of professional musicians who usually live in West Rajasthan <\/a>(Barmer, Jaisalmer <\/a>and Jodhpur<\/a>) and in the Kutch region in Gujarat.<\/strong><\/p>\n They are divided into two types depending on the instruments they play: the Surnaiya Langha<\/em> play wind instruments such as the shenhai, murali, surnai and algoza, while the Sarangya Langha<\/em> play the sarangi, a bowed string instrument.<\/p>\n The Langhas are thought to have come originally from the Sindh region (now in Pakistan)<\/strong> and to have converted to Islam in the 8th century when the Mughals conquered Sindh.<\/p>\n They usually play for the sindhi-sipahi,<\/em> a Rajput Muslim community who are their traditional jajmans <\/em>(patrons), but in recent decades the Langhas have become standard-bearers for Rajasthani culture and often play at festivals in India<\/a> and around the world. Many of their songs are connected with rites of passage.<\/p>\n