About the Hari Rāga Gātha Concert Series
On February 9, 2014, The Anād Foundation will host a concert unprecedented in the history of performance in the nation’s capital: a singing of 31 rāga in gurbāṇī in one six-hour-long concert. Bhai Baldeep Singh, a 13thgeneration exponent of gurbāṇī kīrtan and Chairman of The Anād Foundation, will perform all 31 rāga in the Guru Granth Sahib. Choosing from a wide variety of ancient repertoire hitherto rarely learned or rendered by practitioners of gurbāṇī kirtan in the 21st century, Bhai Baldeep Singh will sing a variety of dhrupad and chantt based compositions. The first concert in this series by Bhai Baldeep Singh was performed at Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar in September 2013. It was accompanied by an exhibit of luthiery tools and musical instruments used in kirtan during the gurus’ times, revived after being nearly extinct and fallen from use in gurbani kirtan for over 150 years. For the last 25 years, Bhai Baldeep Singh has been on a journey to not only imbibe gurbani sangeet repertoire from the gurus’ times, when his ancestors, renowned kirtan practitioners themselves, served as close companions and advisors of the gurus but also personally handcraft instruments from the gurus’ court back to life.
In 2008, after many long years of being on this remarkable journey, Bhai Baldeep Singh set up The Anād Foundation as a community non-profit dedicated to conserving the tangible and intangible heritage of South Asia. Be it the legendary Sufi Baba Sheikh Farid or Bhagat Ramanand who hailed from present-day Tamil Nadu, the magnitude of cultural and ideological exchange between Punjab and other parts of South Asia render the conservation of all South Asian heritage of immense significance to Anād and the community at large. Many of you have already borne witness to Anād Foundation’s work in both Delhi and Punjab, with its series of concerts, lectures and awards celebrating the work of great artists and preserving their legacy through teaching their skills to students across the world.
Through this concert in Delhi, the second in the Hari Rāga Gatha series, Anād hopes to continue celebrating the legacy of gurbāṇī and the role it has played in helping build strong and more cohesive communities in South Asia for centuries.
The practice of singing and listening to gurbāṇī is essentially a celebration of what makes us human: our compassion towards each other and towards our planet. However, due to much social and political turmoil that has led to deleterious changes in value systems over the last century in particular, many of us have lost touch with gurbāṇī and its power to inspire, create, and sustain constructive dialogues with our own selves and those around us. At Anād, we believe that the revival of authentic kirtan practices and instrument-playing techniques, among several other traditional art forms and practices, must begin in a space where the pulse of ancient India can be heard till today. One such place, inarguably one of its kind in terms of its significance to larger South Asian culture, is the town of Sultanpur Lodhi in the erstwhile princely state of Kapurthala. Anād, with the support of enlightened citizens, the Government of Punjab, and all those who wish to participate in the cultural resurgence and renaissance of Punjab, is currently in the process of raising funds to establish Anād Khand: a conservatory dedicated exclusively to the study of cultural traditions, arts, and aesthetics inside the 12th-century fort of Qila Sarai in Sultanpur Lodhi. The tradition of gurbāṇī kīrtan began in Sultanpur Lodhi and thus, aptly so, Anād envisions the revival of ancient gurbani sangeet and other traditional practices spreading from within this conservatory.
All proceeds from the Hari Rāga Gātha concert will help raise funds critical to continuing Anād’s work toward helping build communities that understand, conserve, and celebrate their cultures.
Donor passes to the concert will be made available shortly. We hope that you will consider attending this concert and joining Anād’s caravan of citizens who have a profound appreciation for South Asian cultures and their conservation for posterity.
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