Music of Jammu and Kashmir reflects a rich musical heritage and cultural legacy of the

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 ...

n-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Two different regions of Jammu and Kashmir, consists upper

Jammu Division The Jammu division (; ) is a revenue and administrative division within Jammu and Kashmir, a union territory of India. It consists of the districts of Jammu, Doda, Kathua, Ramban, Reasi, Kishtwar, Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur and Samba. Mos ...

and Kashmir Valley. Music of Kashmir Valley is closer to

Central Asian music The music of Central Asia is as vast and unique as the many cultures and peoples who inhabit the region. Principal instrument types are two- or three-stringed lutes, the necks either fretted or fretless; fiddles made of horsehair; flutes, most ...

while music from

Jammu region The Jammu division (; ) is a revenue and administrative division within Jammu and Kashmir, a union territory of India. It consists of the districts of Jammu, Doda, Kathua, Ramban, Reasi, Kishtwar, Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur and Samba. Most of ...

is similar to that of other regions of

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

Kashmir

Chakri

Chakri is one of the most popular types of traditional music played in Jammu & Kashmir. Chakri is a responsorial song form with instrumental parts, and it is played with instruments like the

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. Th ...

, the rubab, the

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 ...

, the nout, the

geger The geger is a percussion instrument used in the traditional music of Jammu and Kashmir. It consists in a brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrica ...

, the tumbaknaer and the chimta. It is performed in folk and religious spheres, by the Muslim and Hindu kashmiris. Chakri was also used to tell stories like fairy tales or famous love stories such as ''Yousuf-Zulaikha'', ''Laila-Majnun'', etc. Chakri ends with the ''rouf'', though ''rouf'' is a dance form but few ending notes of Chakri which are played differently and on fast notes is also called Rouf. It is a very important part of the Henna Night (Ma'enzi raat) during weddings.

Henzae

Henzae is a traditional and ancient form of singing which is practiced by

Kashmiri Pandits The Kashmiri Pandits (also known as Kashmiri Brahmins) are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. They belong to the Pancha Gauda Brahmin group from the Kashmir Valley, a mountainous region ...

at their festivals. It appears to have archaic features that suggest it is the oldest form of Kashmiri folk singing.

Rouf or Wanwun

Rouf is a traditional dance form usually performed by women on certain important occasions like marriage and other functions and also in cultural activities. Rouf Dance

Ladishah

Ladishah is one of the most important parts of the Kashmiri music tradition. Ladishah is a sarcastic form of singing. The songs are sung resonating to the present social and political conditions and are utterly humorous. The singers move from village to village performing generally during the harvesting period. The songs are composed on the spot on issues relating to that village, be it cultural, social or political. The songs reflect the truth and that sometimes makes the song a bit hard to digest, but they are totally entertaining.

Sufiana Kalam (Kashmiri classical)

Sufiana Kalam is the classical music of Kashmir, which uses its own ragas (known as maqam), and is accompanied by a hundred-stringed instrument called the

santoor The Indian santoor instrument is a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer, and a variation of the Iranian santur. The instrument is generally made of walnut and has 25 bridges. Each bridge has 4 strings, making for a total of 100 strings. It is ...

, along with the Kashmiri saz, the setar, the and the dokra. The dance based on the ''sofiyiana kalam'' is the ''hafiz nagma''. Pandit shivkumar sharma

Hindustani classical

Music and musical instruments find mention in the earliest texts like the Nilmatapurana and

Rajatarangini ''Rajatarangini'' ("The River of Kings") is a metrical legendary and historical chronicle of the north-western part of India, particularly the kings of Kashmir. It was written in Sanskrit by Kashmiri historian Kalhana in the 12th century CE. Th ...

Kalhana Kalhana ( sa, कल्हण, translit=kalhaṇa) was the author of ''Rajatarangini'' (''River of Kings''), an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote the work in Sanskrit between 1148 and 1149. All information regarding his life has to be ...

. The very fact that it was a

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

Abhinavagupta Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 1016 CE) was a philosopher, mystic and aesthetician from Kashmir. He was also considered an influential musician, poet, dramatist, exegete, theologian, and logicianRe-accessing Abhinavagupta, Navjivan Rastogi, ...

(the great philosopher), who wrote a commentary called

Abhinavabharati ''Abhinavabharati'' is a commentary on ancient Indian author Bharata Muni's work of dramatic theory, the '' Natyasastra''. It is the oldest commentary available on the treatise. The ''Abhinavabharati'' was written by Abhinavagupta (c. 950–1020 ...

on Bharata's ''Natyashatra'' shows how much importance was given to music in the ancient times. A favorite traditional instrument is the

(Shat-tantri-veena), a hundred string percussion instrument which is played by the goddess Sharada (the goddess of learning and art in ancient Kashmir). Notable

players from Jammu and Kashmir include

Shivkumar Sharma Pandit Shivkumar Sharma (13 January 1938 – 10 May 2022) was an Indian classical musician and santoor player who is credited with adapting the santoor for Indian classical music. As a music composer, he collaborated with Indian flautist Ha ...

, from Jammu, and

Bhajan Sopori Pandit Bhajan Sopori (22 June 1948 – 2 June 2022) was an Indian instrumentalist. He was a player of the santoor, an ancient stringed musical instrument. Early life and family Sopori was born in Srinagar to Shambhu Nath Sopori on 22 June ...

from the Kashmir Valley.

Jammu region

Music in Jammu is mainly in

Dogri language Dogri ( Name Dogra Akkhar: ; Devanagari: डोगरी; Nastaliq: ; ) is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, India, with smaller groups of speakers in adjoining regions of western Himachal Pr ...

Gujari language Gojri (, ), also known as Gujari, Gujri, Gojari, or Gojri, is a variety of Rajasthani spoken by the Gurjars and other tribes of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In India, the language is mainly spoken in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, ...

Pahari language Pahari, or Pahadi ( 'of the hills/mountains'; ) is an ambiguous term that has been used for a variety of languages, dialects and language groups, most of which are found in the lower Himalayas. Most commonly, it refers to: * Pahari-Pothwari, the ...

and

Punjabi language Punjabi (; ; , ), sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers. Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 80.5 ...

. Traditional Dogri folk song is known as ''Bhakh''.

References

External links

Official Site
{{Kashmir Valley Culture of Jammu and Kashmir Indian culture Indian music