Kattassery Joseph Yesudas is an Indian playback singer and musician who sings Indian classical, devotional and film songs. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of Indian music and also as a cultural icon of Kerala. Yesudas is estimated to have recorded more than 50,000 songs in various Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Tulu, Hindi, Odia, Bengali, Marathi as well as Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian, in a career spanning six decades. He is often referred to as Gaanagandharvan. He is one of the highly acclaimed singers in India. Yesudas holds the record for singing 11 songs in different languages in a single day. He has also composed a number of Malayalam film songs during the 1970s and 1980s.
Pandit Basavraj Rajguru was a leading Indian classical vocalist in the Kirana gharana.
Western Odisha or the western part of Odisha, India, extending from the Kalahandi district in the south to the Sundargarh district in the north.
Sambalpuri is an Indo-Aryan language variety spoken in western Odisha, India. It is alternatively known as Western Odia, and as Kosali, a recently popularised but controversial term, which draws on an association with the historical region of Dakshina Kosala, whose territories also included the present-day Sambalpur region.
Dr. Haldhar Nag is a Sambalpuri poet and writer from Bargarh, Odisha, India. Popularly known as "Lok kabi Ratna". He was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India by Government of India in 2016. He was born in a poor family of Ghens. He is best known for his work Kavyanjali, an anthology of English translation of Nag's selected poetry which was launched on 2 October 2016. Recently he released his 3rd volume of work on Kavyanjali. In 2019 Haldhar Nag was awarded Doctorate Degree by Sambalpur University. In the year 2020, Professor Jaishankar Babu, Head of the Department of Hindi, Pondicherry University, organized a two-day international seminar under the guidance of its Vice-Chancellor Professor Gurmeet Singh, in which "Haldhar Nag Ka kavya- Sansar" translated into Hindi from Sambalpuri by renowned Hindi writer-cum-transaltor Dinesh Kumar Mali was released and there was an intensive discussion on his poems by the participants from India and abroad. In the year 2021, under joint editorship Professor Jaishankar Babu and translator Dinesh Kumar Mali, the book "'Haldhar ke Lok-sahitya par vimarsh'" and the book "Ramayan prasangon par Haldhar ke Kavya aur yugin Vimarsh " translated by Dinesh Kumar Mali based on Ramayana contexts. published from Pandulipi Prakashan, New Delhi.The popularity of these books Hindi Belt honored Haldhar Nag with Dr. Ram Manohar Tripathi Lok Seva Samman on the Silver Jubilee eve of Acharya Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi Smruti Sanrakshan Abhiyan under the leadership of Gaurav Awasthi in the auditorium of Firoz Gandhi College, Rae Bareli on date 12.11.22. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has included a review of literary creations of Padma awardee and noted poet Haldhar Nag. According to sources, students pursuing a Master of Arts (MA) in Folklore and Culture Studies will study folk literature by Nag in a course component titled, ‘Folklore: Canon, Multimediality, Interdisciplinarity, and Social Epistemology’ in their second year.The course book has described Nag as the true representative of orality in the present times. His creations have been reviewed in the category, ‘Case study of orality from East India’.“Nag has based his poems on his surroundings. Folklorists and folklore researchers are vulnerable to multiple challenges with regards to archiving, documentation, and dissemination of the folk material,” TOI reported writer Nandini Sahu, who has designed the MA course for IGNOU, as saying.Notably, writer Dinesh K Mali has written a chapter for the MA programme on Nag’s poetry.'
Sambalpur, in Orissa, India, is a region that has a distinct cultural identity. The songs, clothing, dances, language and festivals celebrated in Sambalpur are unique. This distinct cultural identity arises from the strong association of the tribal and folk communities which have been coexisting in Sambalpur for centuries.
Several folk dance forms evolved in different regions of Odisha, Odissi and Chhau being some popular forms. Sambalpuri dance is most popular dance of western Odisha and is enjoyed by many.
Ghulam Mustafa Khan was an Indian classical musician in the Hindustani classical music tradition, belonging to the Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana.
"Rangabati" is perhaps the most popular recorded song in Sambalpuri/Odiya. Jitendra Haripal, a 2017 Padma Shri awardee, is the male singer of the song. The song was first recorded for All India Radio in the mid-1970s. A record company from the then Calcutta, Indian Record Manufacturing Company Ltd (INRECO), re-recorded the song in 1976. The disc release was delayed due to a dispute and finally released in 1978–79. The Sambalpuri song was written by Mitrabhanu Gauntia, composed by Prabhudatta Pradhan and sung by Jitendra Haripal and Krishna Patel. In the 1970s and 1980s, the song gained popularity for being commonly played in marriage processions and Murti immersion. The song gained official recognition when it was played in the tableau of Odisha as part of the Republic Day celebrations at New Delhi in 2007. The lead singer Jitendra Haripal was also felicitated by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik later that year. It was also notably used in the celebration of victory during an international cricket match in Barabati Stadium, Cuttack. "Rangabati" was recreated in many other languages of India and has been recreated in Telugu for a movie.
Pandit M. Venkatesh Kumar is an Indian Hindustani vocalist. He is best known for his rendition of devotional songs composed by Swami Haridas and Kanakadasa. Kumar belongs to the Kirana and Gwalior Gharana.
Shanno Khurana is a noted Indian classical vocalist and composer, from the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana of Hindustani classical music. A disciple of the doyen of the gharana, Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, she is known for performing rare bandish and raag, though her singing style includes genres like khayal, tarana, thumri, dadra, tappa, to chaiti and bhajan. Born and brought up in Jodhpur, she started singing on All India Radio in 1945 in Lahore, later shifted to Delhi, where she continued her singing on All India Radio, Delhi and in concerts and music festivals. She also pursued music education, finally earning her M.Phil. and PhD in music from the Kairagarh University, and has undertakes extensive research on folk music of Rajasthan.
Prafulla Kar was an Odia musician, singer, lyricist, writer and columnist. He received Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India in 2015 for his contribution in the field of arts.
S. Ballesh Bhajantri is a popular Indian classical Hindustani shehnai player. He is a disciple of shehnai player Ustad Bismillah Khan, he is benares gharana shehnai player and a patiala gharana hindustani vocalist, ghazal singer, Indian playback singer and musician, Ballesh is credited with popularizing the shehnai, a reeded woodwind instrument. He is also a Prasar Bharati's All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan artist.
Neil Nongkynrih was an Indian concert pianist and conductor. He founded the Shillong Chamber Choir (SCC), which won the reality show India's Got Talent in 2010. He was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India in 2015.
Ibrahim Sutar was an Indian social worker and poet known for folk-music performances across Karnataka and neighboring states which spread the message of Hindu–Muslim communal unity.
Ramzan Khan, popularly known as Munna Master, is an Indian singer and social worker who sings Bhajans and takes care of cows. He hails from Jaipur district of Rajasthan. He was conferred with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India in 2020 for his contribution to arts.
Dalit music or Bahujan music is music created, produced, or inspired by Bahujans and Dalits (Shudras), people often discriminated against on the basis of caste, including Dalit rock, Bhim rap and Dalit pop as well as the music genres of the Ravidasis, including Chamar pop, Bhim Palana, Bhim geet and Punjabi Ambedkarite music.
Mitrabhanu Gountia is a retired teacher and the composer of the Sambalpuri cult song, Rangabati. In 2020, he was conferred with the Padma Shri by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.
Narasingha Prasad Guru is an author and a lyricist from the Indian State of Odisha. He is a pioneer and a promoter of the Koshali language, also known as the Sambalpuri language, which is a language spoken in the western parts of Odisha. He has composed over 10 books in this language and composed around 500 songs. He has also compiled a dictionary of the Koshali language.
Gosaveedu Shaik Hassan was an accomplished scholar and player of the Nadaswaram, a traditional classical instrument popular in South India. He had served as the Asthana Vidwan in the Sita Ramachandraswamy Temple, Bhadrachalam from 1950 to 1993. He had also served at the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple, Yadadri.
