Kabir in Song: Musical Traditions of a Great Religious Poet of India
Kabir, the 15th-century weaver-poet of Varanasi, is still one of the most revered and popular saint-singers of North India. He belonged to a family of Muslim julahas (weavers of low caste status), is considered a disciple of the Hindu guru Ramanand, and often sang of inner experience using language of the subtle yogic body. Yet he cannot be classified as Hindu, Muslim, or yogi. Fiercely independent, he has become an icon of speaking truth to power. In a blunt and uncompromising style, he exhorted his listeners to shed their delusions, pretensions, and orthodoxies in favor of a direct confrontation with the truth. He satirized hypocrisy, greed, and violence—especially among the religious. Belonging to a social group widely considered low and unclean, he criticized caste ideology and declared the equality of all human beings. Kabir was an oral poet whose works were written down by others. His oral traditions have flourished for more than 500 years, producing a rich array of musical forms, folk and classical, in countless local dialects and regional styles. Please bring a blanket to sit on and a sweater to keep
warm!
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