Tana and Riri is an Indian story about two girls born around 1564, who were asked to sing in the court of

Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

. The story has become part of Gujarati folk culture. The twins were from a northern town known as

Vadnagar Vadnagar is a town and municipality in the Mehsana district of the state of Gujarat in India. It just about 35 km from Mehsana city. Its ancient name was Anartapura, and was also known as Anandapura. It was a Buddhist location visited by Xu ...

near

Visnagar Visnagar is a city and a municipality in Mehsana district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Visnagar is also a taluka capital. History "Visnagar" named after its founder king Visaladev from Ajmer Dynasty was founded in 953 on the auspicious day ...

in the state of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

. Tana and Riri both girls are closely related to Narsih Maheta. Narasih Maheta's grand daughter is Sharmishtha who is mother of Tana and Riri. Narendra Modi presents Tana-Riri and Pandit Omkarnath Sangeet Awards

Narendra Modi presents Tana-Riri and Pandit Omkarnath Sangeet Awards

The legend

When Akbar's court singer, maestro

Tansen Tansen ( – 26 April 1589), also referred to and commonly known as Sangeet Samrat () , was a Hindustani classical musician. Born in a Hindu Gaur Brahmin family, he learnt and perfected his art in the northwest region of modern Madhya Pra ...

's preceptor died, he sang the raag "Deepak". The effect of singing this raag is said to be that the singer starts feeling an incurable heat in his/her body. When Tansen was affected by the burns of the Deepak raag, he roamed around the whole of India. Finally the commander in chief of their army, Amjadkhan, came to

and learned of the two sisters Tana and Riri who were proficient singers and could cure Tansen (expert of raag dipak) by singing raga

Malhar "Malhar" is a Hindustani classical raga. Malhar is associated with torrential rains. Besides the basic Shuddha Malhar, which was the original Malhar, several Malhar-related ragas use the Malhar signature phrase m (m)R (m)R P, including "Miyan ...

. When they were asked to sing at Akbar's court, they refused to come since it was their vow as Nagars only to sing in front of the village deity's idol. So they asked tansen instead to come to their home if he would want to subside the effect of raag deepak; which he agreed to. Women did not leave their houses and go elsewhere in those days. Thus these twin sisters became renowned as the only singers who were able to cure tansen in whole India. Later on king Akbar invited them to become his court singers but they refused as they would only sing in front of God and not any king. So after one or more requests Akbar sent army to fetch them. Instead they killed themselves by drowning in a well. They chose to do this rather than to refuse, which would have caused conflict in their town. When Akbar learned of it he apologised to their father and asked Tansen to develop a new genre of pieces named in honor of Tana-Riri.

Legacy

A memorial has been erected in Vadnagar to honour Tana-Riri. Tana-Riri Music Festival is organised every year by

Government of Gujarat The Government of Gujarat, also known as Gujarat Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Gujarat and its 33 districts. It consists of an executive of the legislators appointed by the Governor of Gujarat, a judiciary ...

in their dedication.

References

External links

Tana & Riri at zazi.com

Tana Riri Festival 2019 3 World Records
History of Gujarat Indian women folk singers Indian folklore 16th-century Indian women singers 16th-century Indian singers Singers from Gujarat Women musicians from Gujarat {{India-hist-stub