Bihar, a

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, has produced musicians like

Bharat Ratna The Bharat Ratna (; ''Jewel of India'') is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred in recognition of "exceptional service/performance of the highest order", without distinctio ...

Ustad Bismillah Khan Bismillah Khan (born Amaruddin Khan, 21 March 1916 – 21 August 2006), often referred to by the title ''Ustad'', was an Indian musician credited with popularizing the shehnai, a reeded woodwind instrument. While the shehnai had long held imp ...

and

dhrupad Dhrupad is a genre in Hindustani classical music from the Indian subcontinent. It is the oldest known style of major vocal styles associated with Hindustani classical music, Haveli Sangeet of Pushtimarg Sampraday and also related to the South In ...

singers like the Malliks ( Darbhanga Gharana) and the Mishras (

Bettiah Bettiah is a city and administrative headquarters of West Champaran district ( Tirhut Division) - ( Tirhut), near Indo-Nepal border, north-west of Patna, in Bihar state of India. History In 1244 A.D., Gangeshwar Dev, a Bhumihar Brahmin ...

Gharana) along with poets like Pandit Dhareekshan Mishra,

Bhikhari Thakur Bhikari Thakur (18 December 1887 – 10 July 1971) was an Indian Bhojpuri language poet, playwright, lyricist, actor, folk dancer, folk singer and social activist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest writer in Bhojpuri language and ...

, the shakespeare of Bhojpuri and

Vidyapati Vidyapati ( – 1460), also known by the sobriquet ''Maithil Kavi Kokil'' (the poet cuckoo of Maithili), was a Maithili and Sanskrit polymath-poet-saint, playwright, composer, biographer, philosopher, law-theorist, writer, courtier ...

Thakur who contributed to Maithili Music. The classical music in Bihar is a form of the

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, si ...

. The region's folk songs are associated with the various events in the life of an ordinary person. The historical ballads dealing with the heroic deeds of the freedom fighter Kunwar Singh have also been immortalized through folk songs in the plain tracts of Bihar. Religiosity is the pivot around which the music and amusements of the villag
folk of Bihar
revolve. There are songs like sohar - performed during

childbirth Childbirth, also known as labour and delivery, is the ending of pregnancy where one or more babies exits the internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section. In 2019, there were about 140.11 million births glob ...

, sumangali - associated with

wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

, ropnigeet - performed during the season of sowing paddy, katnigeet - performed during the paddy harvesting season. The influence of Bihari music is seen in regions such as

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

, South Africa and the Caribbean, where many Bihari indentured labourers were taken during the nineteenth century as well as

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

where many Bihari Muslims migrated to after the partition of India. There is a great tradition of folk songs started by

, an artist from the Bhojpur region. In the field Bhojpuri Music and Songs, there are notable works done by Mahendar Misir, Radhamohan Chaubey 'Anjan', Pandit Dhareekshan Mishra, Laxman Pathak Pradeep, and Sharda Sinha. Other wandering folk singers include the

Kathak Kathak ( hi, कथक; ur, کتھک) is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. It is the classical dance from of Uttar Pradesh. The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in ancient northern Ind ...

s, who travelled in groups and performed accompanied by

dholak The ''dholak'' is a two-headed hand drum, a folk percussion instrument. The instrument is about 45 cm in length and 27 cm in breadth and is widely used in '' qawwali'', '' kirtan'', ''lavani'' and '' bhangra''. The drum has two differ ...

sarangi The sārangī is a bowed, short-necked string instrument played in traditional music from South Asia – Punjabi folk music, Rajasthani folk music, and Boro folk music (there known as the ''serja'') – in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. It is ...

, tamburu and majira. Other musician classes included Roshan Chouki, Bhajaniya, Kirtaniya, Pamaria and Bhakliya. 'Harkirtan' are famous religious folk songs. 'Astajam' are also famous religious folk songs in which 'Hare-Rama, Hare-Krishna' is sung regularly for twenty four hours at Hindu religious places. In Bihar there is Caste Bhatt (Brahma Bhatt) whose tradition is singing and music. Although with the passage of time they have left there profession. Some small groups also sings Sohar songs at the birth time. Some transgender people (Kinners) also sing for livelihood money.

Famous singers and musicians from Bihar

Musician

Singers

Sharda Sinha Sharda Sinha (born 1 October 1952) is an Indian folk and classical singer. Sharda Sinha is a popular Maithili and Bhojpuri singer from Mithila. She is a famous traditional female singer for ' Maithili' and Bhojpuri songs. She has sung many ...

* Daler Mehndi *

Kiran Ahluwalia Kiran Ahluwalia is a Canadian singer, songwriter who infuses African desert blues and Western musical styles. Kiran Ahluwalia won the 'Newcomer' category in the inaugural Songlines Music Awards (2009) – announced 1 May 2009 – the new 'world m ...

* Manoj Tiwari *

Deepali Kishore Deepali Kishore ( bho, दीपाली किशोर; born 6 January 1989) is an Indian singer. She was a finalist of ''Indian Idol 3''. She also appeared along with Bollywood actor John Abraham and performed a group song from film ''Goal' ...

Aishwarya Nigam Aishwarya Nigam (born 4 July 1989) is an Indian singer. He is best known as a playback singer in Hindi films, particularly for films like ''Dabangg''. He has received several awards for the song "Munni Badnaam Hui" from ''Dabangg''. Early an ...

Parmanand Singh Parmanand Singh (born 1905) was one of the three Indo-Fijians elected to the Legislative Council of Fiji in October 1929 when Indo-Fijians were given the first opportunity to elect their own representatives. The other two were Vishnu Deo and Jam ...

Maithili Thakur Maithili Thakur (born 25 July 2000) is an Indian playback singer trained in Indian classical music and Folk Music. She has sung original songs, covers, and traditional folk music prominently in Hindi, Bengali, Maithili, Urdu, Marathi, Bhojpuri ...

Ritviz Vishal 'Ritviz' Srivastava (born 24 July 1996) is an Indian singer-songwriter, electronic musician and record producer from Pune,Maharashtra, India. He is known for his song "Udd Gaye" featured on A.I.B.'s official YouTube channel after becomi ...

Music directors

Chitragupta Chitragupta (Sanskrit: चित्रगुप्त, 'rich in secrets' or 'hidden picture') is a Hindu deity assigned with the task of keeping complete records of the actions of human beings and punishing or rewarding them according to their ...

Anand–Milind Anand and Milind Srivastava are a duo of Indian film music composers. Born to composer Chitragupt, they have composed music for over 200 Bollywood films. The brothers debuted in 1984 with ''Ab Ayega Mazaa'' and had their major breakthrough with ' ...

* Bapi Tutul * Ramashreya Jha * Norman Hackforth

References

Bibliography

* {{Cite book, last=Sharma, first=Manorma, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nuWBch2jTqAC, title=Musical Heritage of India, publisher=APH Publishing, year=2007, isbn=9788131300466

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...