Kirin Narayan
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226407425
- eISBN:
- 9780226407739
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226407739.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter focuses on one of the author's mentors, Jagadamba Mataji. From the very first time they met, Jagadamba Mataji met the author's wish to learn with an exuberant willingness to teach. Many ...
More
This chapter focuses on one of the author's mentors, Jagadamba Mataji. From the very first time they met, Jagadamba Mataji met the author's wish to learn with an exuberant willingness to teach. Many of the songs that the author recorded, and that Jagadamba Mataji oversaw, were about Krishna. While the stories carried in the Kangra songs echo the Sanskrit retellings in the Bhagavata Purana, as vernacular, regionally based appropriations by women, these were distinctive reimaginings of Krishna. The author claims that whenever she encountered the poetry in Kangra songs, she often felt like she was being transported through the colored borders of miniature paintings. Krishna became present: blue skinned, curly black haired, wearing his distinctive saffron-yellow garments, and very often surrounded by delicate- featured adoring women.Less
This chapter focuses on one of the author's mentors, Jagadamba Mataji. From the very first time they met, Jagadamba Mataji met the author's wish to learn with an exuberant willingness to teach. Many of the songs that the author recorded, and that Jagadamba Mataji oversaw, were about Krishna. While the stories carried in the Kangra songs echo the Sanskrit retellings in the Bhagavata Purana, as vernacular, regionally based appropriations by women, these were distinctive reimaginings of Krishna. The author claims that whenever she encountered the poetry in Kangra songs, she often felt like she was being transported through the colored borders of miniature paintings. Krishna became present: blue skinned, curly black haired, wearing his distinctive saffron-yellow garments, and very often surrounded by delicate- featured adoring women.
Kirin Narayan
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226407425
- eISBN:
- 9780226407739
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226407739.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This book's author's imagination was captured the very first time that, as a girl visiting the Himalayas, she heard Kangra women join their voices together in song. Returning as an anthropologist, ...
More
This book's author's imagination was captured the very first time that, as a girl visiting the Himalayas, she heard Kangra women join their voices together in song. Returning as an anthropologist, she became fascinated by how they spoke of singing as a form of enrichment, bringing feelings of accomplishment, companionship, happiness, and even good health—all benefits of the “everyday creativity” are explored in this book. Part ethnography, part musical discovery, part poetry, part memoir, and part unforgettable portraits of creative individuals, this work brings this remote region in North India alive in sight and sound while celebrating the incredible powers of music in our lives. The text portrays Kangra songs about difficulties on the lives of goddesses and female saints as a path to well-being. Like the intricate geometries of mandalu patterns drawn in courtyards or the subtle balance of flavors in a meal, well-crafted songs offer a variety of deeply meaningful benefits: as a way of making something of value, as a means of establishing a community of shared pleasure and skill, as a path through hardships and limitations, and as an arena of renewed possibility.Less
This book's author's imagination was captured the very first time that, as a girl visiting the Himalayas, she heard Kangra women join their voices together in song. Returning as an anthropologist, she became fascinated by how they spoke of singing as a form of enrichment, bringing feelings of accomplishment, companionship, happiness, and even good health—all benefits of the “everyday creativity” are explored in this book. Part ethnography, part musical discovery, part poetry, part memoir, and part unforgettable portraits of creative individuals, this work brings this remote region in North India alive in sight and sound while celebrating the incredible powers of music in our lives. The text portrays Kangra songs about difficulties on the lives of goddesses and female saints as a path to well-being. Like the intricate geometries of mandalu patterns drawn in courtyards or the subtle balance of flavors in a meal, well-crafted songs offer a variety of deeply meaningful benefits: as a way of making something of value, as a means of establishing a community of shared pleasure and skill, as a path through hardships and limitations, and as an arena of renewed possibility.
