Folk music and musicians of Thar, Rajasthan

The meeting of around hundred performers from Managaniyars, Langas, Mehers, Dhadis, Meghwals and Bhils communities of Barmer and JaIsalmer district was memorable in more than one ways. Braving the scorching heat of May, folk musicians, young and old, collected from 3^rd to 5^th May in the hill township of Barmer city to successfully convene a well organized three day event in the backdrop of vast horizons and star lit skies.
--> -->

Among those present were illustrious stalwarts like Rukma Bai, Nage Khan, Karim Khan, Chanan Khan, Hakim Khan, Bade Ghazi Khan who had their first international exposure in the early 1980s and have since then visited more than two dozen countries. Versatile old poets like Bhopji Dhadi and Pathane Khan, who recited traditional verses in dingal and poems about the havoc wreaked by the recent floods in Barmer with equal ease, never hesitated with their wise interjections. Mishri Khan, the grand old jaltarang specialist, always posed challenges with his fundamental and existential ruminations. Ridmalram, Chaturbhuj, Raees Khan, Bhungar Khan, the younger among the performers, participated with their mature suggestions and innovative ideas.

Their hidden ecstatic bodies would spontaneously come in play when they went on to singing a song or strung a melody on the kamaicha or deftly played the khartal. The old and the new singers created a seamless blend of sonic aura that seemed to organically possess everybody present.

for more details on the Conference See Enticing Overtures and Ecstatic renditions