Music that belongs to families, not stages
That is the heart of how we work. When we arrange music, the musicians are paid properly and directly, they choose the songs, and you hear them in a setting where they can play as they would at home.
A hereditary calling: in the desert districts of Jaisalmer, Barmer and Jodhpur, music passed from father to son.
Bound to patrons: each Manganiyar family was tied to patron families, mostly Hindu Rajputs, whose ceremonies they marked with song.
- Manganiyars
- Muslim musicians of the Thar
- Langas
- Around Barmer; the Sindhi sarangi
- Jajman
- The patron family
- Kalbelias
- Dancers, once snake-charmers
- Bhopas
- Priest-singers of the phad
- The jajman: the patron, and the bond passed from father to son on both sides.
- What they sang: the genealogies and deeds of their patrons' ancestors, songs to the Hindu gods and Sufi verses, often in the same evening, and nobody thought it strange.
- The Langas: more numerous around Barmer, they served Muslim Sindhi Sipahi patrons and play the Sindhi sarangi.
- Other traditions: the Kalbelias danced, the Bhats worked the kathputli string puppets and told the stories of Rajput heroes.
- The bhopas: priest-singers who unrolled painted cloths called phads and sang the epics of folk gods through the night.
- Women's songs: sung at the well, at weddings and at festivals, still the most widely sung music in Rajasthan.
- Komal Kothari: from the late 1970s the Jodhpur folklorist gave desert musicians the support and recognition to perform beyond their villages.
- From villages to concert halls: Manganiyar groups now play from Paris to New York, yet the old patronage has weakened and many families struggle.
The instruments of the desert
- Kamaicha
- The Manganiyar's bowed lute
- Sindhi sarangi
- The Langas' bowed instrument
- Khartal
- Wooden clappers
- Algoza
- Twin wooden flutes
- Ravanhatha
- The bhopa's fiddle
The kamaicha
The Manganiyar's own: a bowed lute with a round belly covered in goatskin.
- The hum: a cluster of sympathetic strings sounds beneath the melody. It sounds older than the desert itself.
- Precious: fewer and fewer players and makers remain, so a good kamaicha is something to treasure.
The Sindhi sarangi
The Langas' instrument: carved from a single piece of wood and strung with a forest of sympathetic strings.
- Its voice: brighter and more singing than the kamaicha.
- Its role: in a Langa group it often carries the melody alongside the lead voice.
The khartal and the dholak
The khartal: a pair of wooden clappers in each hand, played so fast the player seems to be making rain.
- Watch his face: he is usually grinning.
- The dholak: a two-headed barrel drum that keeps the rhythm.
- The chang: a bigger frame drum that belongs to the weeks before Holi.
The morchang, the algoza and the pungi
The morchang: a metal jaw harp that twangs like a desert insect.
- The algoza: two wooden flutes played at once, one holding a drone and the other the tune, the sound of herders out with their animals.
- The pungi: a gourd pipe, the instrument of the Kalbelia, which once charmed snakes.
The ravanhatha
What it is: a simple bowed fiddle of coconut shell or gourd and bamboo.
- Who plays it: the bhopas, as they sing the epic of Pabuji. You'll often hear one outside a fort or palace.
- Its age: it may be the oldest bowed instrument in India. Our journal tells the story of the bhopa and the phad.
The dances, and who dances them
- Kalbelia
- UNESCO intangible heritage, 2010
- Ghoomar
- Gangaur and weddings
- Terah taali
- Thirteen cymbals, for Baba Ramdev
- Gair
- Men's stick dance at Holi
- Snake shows
- We never book them
Kalbelia, the dance of the snake
The movement: the women's dance draws on the snakes the community once charmed, with whirling black skirts sewn with mirrors and silver and astonishing flexibility.
The music: the pungi and the drum.
- UNESCO: Kalbelia folk songs and dances were inscribed on its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2010.
- Snake-charming: now illegal under India's wildlife laws, and the community lives largely by its music. We never book snake shows.
- Read more: our journal tells the story of Kalbelia dance.
Ghoomar, the turning dance
The dance: women in long, full skirts that bloom as they turn, faces veiled, hands moving in slow arcs.
- When: the dance of Gangaur and of weddings, in zenana courtyards and family celebrations across Rajasthan.
- What to watch: the skirt more than the feet. A good ghoomar turns for minutes without seeming to move at all.
Bhavai and the tower of pots
The feat: a woman balances a tower of brass or clay pots on her head and dances on the rim of a brass plate or the edge of a sword, adding pots as she goes.
- Its roots: bhavai, a dance and theatre tradition of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
- The audience: always holds its breath.
Terah taali, thirteen cymbals
The dance: women sit and play small brass cymbals tied to their wrists, elbows, knees and ankles, thirteen in all.
- The songs: devotional, to Baba Ramdev.
- The feel: quiet, intricate and hypnotic, the opposite of the whirling dances.
Gair, gindad and kachhi ghodi
Gair: a men's circle dance with sticks, played at Holi in Mewar and Marwar.
- Gindad: in Shekhawati it fills the town squares at night in the weeks before Holi, to the beat of the chang.
- Kachhi ghodi: danced on dummy horses, the riders brandishing swords in mock battle, a favourite at weddings and at the Shekhawati Festival.
The songs, and what they are about
Kesariya balam, the song of welcome
The words: kesariya balam padharo mhare des, come to my land, my saffron-clad beloved. Its last words have become the state's greeting to every visitor.
- Its style: maand, the refined court style of singing.
- Who made it famous: the Bikaner singer Allah Jilai Bai, across India in the twentieth century.
- Where you'll hear it: at weddings, palace dinners and very often as the first song of an evening. Our journal explains what padharo mhare des means.
Moomal, and the lovers of the desert
Sung romances: the Thar's great love stories are all songs.
- Moomal and Mahendra: the beautiful woman of Lodurva near Jaisalmer, and the lover who rode across the desert to her each night on a swift camel. Every Manganiyar knows their song.
- Dhola and Maru: their camel carries them across walls and songs all over Rajasthan.
- Ask for one: on a desert night, and the singers will tell you the story before they begin.
Panihari and the songs of women
Panihari: songs in the voice of the woman fetching water, walking to the well with pots on her head, thinking of a husband far away.
- Every stage of life: wedding songs called banna and banni for groom and bride, the songs of Gangaur and Teej, lullabies and laments.
- Rarely heard: many are never performed for outsiders.
- If you are invited: to a family celebration and the women begin to sing, sit quietly. You will hear the oldest music in Rajasthan.
Songs to the folk gods
Baba Ramdev: honoured by Hindus and Muslims alike, with songs sung through the night at his fairs to the cymbals of terah taali.
- Pabuji and Devnarayan: their epics are sung by the bhopas before the painted phad.
- Devotion first: many Manganiyar evenings begin with a song to the patron's family deity.
Puppets, painted cloths and the storytellers
- Kathputli
- Wooden string puppets
- Phad
- A painted epic on cloth
- Kavad
- A painted wooden shrine with doors
- Phad painters
- Bhilwara and Shahpura
- Kavad makers
- Bassi, near Chittorgarh
Kathputli, the string puppets
The name: kathputli means wooden doll.
The making: heads and hands carved from wood, painted with great black eyes and dressed in bright cloth.
- The show: worked on strings behind a small painted stage, while a drummer and a singer tell the story.
- The classic tales: Rajput heroes, always with a sword fight, a dancing courtesan, a snake charmer and a galloping horse.
- The squeaky voice: it comes from a small reed held in the puppeteer's mouth. Children love it, and grandparents remember it from their own childhoods.
The phad, an epic on a cloth
The cloth: many metres wide, crowded with the scenes of a folk god's life.
- The performance: the bhopa unrolls it at night, his wife holds the lamp to each scene in turn, and he sings and dances the story to the ravanhatha.
- Length: a full performance of Pabuji's epic once lasted several nights. Short performances are more common today.
- A portable temple: the cloth is still treated as one. The painting tradition belongs to families of Bhilwara and Shahpura.
The kavad of Bassi
The makers: the carpenters of Bassi, near Chittorgarh.
- The object: a painted wooden shrine with folding doors.
- The telling: a storyteller opens the doors one by one as he tells a tale from the epics, so the box becomes a temple and a picture book at once.
- Village television: that is what these were. Our page on block printing and crafts has more on the makers.
Where we arrange music, place by place
- Manganiyars
- Jaisalmer and the Thar villages
- Langas
- Barmer
- Folk festival
- Mehrangarh, October
- Dharohar show
- Bagore ki Haveli, Udaipur
- Qawwali
- Ajmer dargah
Jaisalmer and the Thar villages
Home of the Manganiyars: the finest evenings we know are here.
- The setting: a village courtyard or a haveli roof facing the lit fort, with a desert supper of ker sangri and bajra roti.
- The music: a group who choose their own songs, and at the dune camps a Kalbelia dancer may join them by the fire.
- Read further: our Jaisalmer guide and our page on the Manganiyar singers.
Barmer, for the Langas
The Sindhi sarangi rules: in the Langa villages around Barmer.
- A full day: the carved temples of Kiradu at dawn, an embroidery village in the afternoon and an evening of Langa songs.
- Far from anywhere: which is exactly why it feels so true.
Jodhpur and Mehrangarh
RIFF: every October, close to the full moon, the Rajasthan International Folk Festival turns Mehrangarh into a stage.
- Who plays: Manganiyar and Langa singers, Kalbelia dancers and musicians from around the world, with dawn concerts on the ramparts and courtyards full of music late into the night.
- The Marwar Festival: the Marwar Festival, around the same autumn full moon, celebrates the folk heroes of Marwar.
- Other times: musicians often play at the fort, and we arrange private evenings in the city.
Udaipur and the Dharohar show
Where: the courtyard of Bagore ki Haveli on Gangaur Ghat, in the evening.
- One lively hour: ghoomar, terah taali, a puppet act and the dance with a tower of brass pots.
- Seats: book near the front. Children love it.
- Puppets: the city's folk-art museum, Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal, has a fine collection.
Jaipur, puppets and courtyards
For generations: Jaipur's travelling musicians and kathputli puppeteers have performed for the city's nobles.
- A private evening: in a haveli courtyard, with a small group of musicians, a puppeteer and a dancer.
- For families: a kathputli puppet theatre performance. Our journal on kathputli puppets tells the puppeteers' story.
Ajmer, for qawwali
Sufi music's home: the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer.
- Qawwali: devotional singing that builds to ecstasy, filling the evenings.
- Not a concert: heads are covered and shoes come off. Sit quietly at the edge and let it reach you.
Pushkar, Shekhawati and the village fairs
Pushkar fair: herders sing around their fires on the dunes at night, with algoza and morchang drifting between the tents.
- Shekhawati before Holi: chang drums and gindad dances fill the town squares after dark, watched by almost nobody but the townspeople.
- Marwar's fairs: bhopas set up their phads and sing for anyone who stops.
- Music we take you to: not performances we arrange, so we go quietly, with a guide who knows when it is welcome to stay.
What a private music evening looks like
We pay the fee in full and in advance, directly to the musicians. At the end, honour them the old way, nyochhawar: circle a note over the singer's head before handing it over. It is how patrons have always honoured musicians in Rajasthan, and the singers will smile to see you do it.
Musicians first: we start with them, not the venue. We know families in the Thar and in Jodhpur whose musicians we have heard for years, and we ask who is home and who would like to play.
A setting that suits them: a courtyard with a fire, a roof under the stars, a lamplit terrace above a lake.
- Rugs, not rows: rugs on the ground rather than chairs in a row, and a simple supper for everyone, musicians included.
- No microphones: unless they ask for them.
- They decide: the musicians begin when ready, usually with a song to the gods or their patrons' ancestors, and choose what comes next.
- Your guide: translates a line or two, explains which song belongs to which occasion and tells you when to clap and when to be still.
- Requests: if you have a song you love, ask, and they may sing it.
- Try the khartal: the player will usually hand you a pair with a grin.
- Nothing taken in between: no one takes a cut of the fee.
A desert evening, hour by hour
- Where
- Near Jaisalmer
- Start
- An hour before sunset
- Dancer joins
- Around nine
- Ends
- Late; sleep at the camp if you like
An hour before sunset, the village
The drive: out to a musicians' village with your guide.
- The welcome: meet the family, watch the instruments being tuned and drink tea in the courtyard while the children inspect your shoes.
- The maker: if the kamaicha maker is at work, he will show you how the goatskin is stretched.
Sunset, the dunes or the roof
- The setting: a quiet patch of dunes away from the camps, a fire at your tented camp, or a haveli roof facing the fort as its lights come on.
- The scene: rugs on the sand, lanterns, and a simple supper cooking nearby.
After dark, the music
The order: a song to the gods, then love songs, wedding songs and the great desert romances.
- Around nine: a Kalbelia dancer may join them, her skirt flaring in the firelight.
- Supper: served when the singers pause, and everyone eats together.
Late, under the stars
The quietest songs: often the last ones.
- Afterwards: sit a while in the silence of the Thar before driving back, or sleep at the camp under a sky full of stars.
- Make a night of it: our page on desert camps and dunes and our stargazing evenings.
Festivals and seasons for music
- Best single week
- RIFF, near the October full moon
- Pushkar fair
- Kartik
- Kumbhalgarh Festival
- December
- Desert Festival
- Magh, around February
- Wedding season
- November to February
October, the folk festival at Mehrangarh
When: the Rajasthan International Folk Festival falls close to the October full moon.
- Why it matters: the single best week to hear Rajasthan's music.
- Book early: seats and rooms in Jodhpur go fast, so we plan well ahead.
Winter, the fairs and the desert festival
Kartik: the Pushkar Camel Fair.
- December: the Kumbhalgarh Festival.
- Magh, around February: the Bundi Utsav and the Jaisalmer Desert Festival, all bringing folk musicians and dancers from across the region.
- On the dunes: the desert festival ends with an evening of music at Sam under a nearly full moon.
Holi, Gangaur and Teej
Before Holi: chang drums sound in Shekhawati's squares and men dance gair in Mewar and Marwar.
The wedding season
- November to February: brass bands, dhol players and family musicians fill the evenings.
- Say yes: if a family invites you to a wedding. You will hear more music in one night than in a week of shows.
Who will love it
Who will love it
Music lovers and musicians: plan at least one evening with Manganiyars in the Thar and, if you can, the October folk festival in Jodhpur.
- Couples: a private evening on a roof or by a fire is often the most romantic night of a desert journey.
- Families: the Dharohar show, a puppet theatre and the khartal, which children learn faster than adults.
- Travellers drawn to Sufism: qawwali at Ajmer is unforgettable.
Who should go gently
Volume and late nights: desert music builds slowly and can run past midnight, and festival crowds are large.
- The gentler version: an early, short evening, or a morning in a musicians' village to hear the instruments up close and talk to the families.
- Music every night: our Under the Thar Sky journey builds it into every desert evening.
Listening with respect
Pay well: directly and generously, and never haggle over a fee. If you enjoy the music, add a gift at the end.
Let them choose: ask for requests politely, not as orders.
- Fees
- Paid directly; never haggle
- Requests
- Ask politely
- Filming
- Ask first; no flash
- Animal shows
- Never
- Ask before filming: especially women dancers, and don't use flash in their faces.
- Don't talk over the music: if you need to leave early, wait for the end of a song.
- What we never book: snake shows, dancing animals or performances by young children on the street.
- At the Ajmer dargah: qawwali is worship. Cover your head, sit at the edge and don't film without permission.
- Recordings: buy CDs or recordings from the musicians themselves.
- Learn the greeting: khamma ghani. Musicians, more than anyone, will light up when you use it.