The spiritual, ritualistic and devotional superstructure of India is a glittering multiplicity of faiths, icons, systems and ways of living. The Bhakti cult is one supersystem which germinated perhaps around the 5th century A.D. and made its most voluminous contributions between the 15th and 18th centuries A.D. The cult was concretised by the great Bhaktas – best known being names like Meerabai, Kabirdas, Surdas and Tulsidas-all saint singers, who spoke and sang the language of the common folk-extolling the virtues of good thoughts, good deeds and an existence of simplicity, honest work and devotion to one Supreme Lord. Thus the Bhakti cult was a movement against the tyranny of ritualism, casteism, untouchability and other aberrations which had crept into formal religious practices. The songs of these innumerable great savantsranging from the Alvars and Nayanars of the South to the Gurus of Punjab, from Meera and Narsi Mehta in the West through the saint poets of the Braj region like Sur and Tulsi to the Vaishnavite mendicants of the East-have come to be generically called Bhajans in today’s musical milieu. They have grown to become a beautiful body of devotional literature in India, serving a purpose different from the esoteric Vedic chants, mantras, stotras and stutis, or the great philosophical scriptures and epics of this land.

This ‘BHAJAN’ series of HMV brings the immortal words of the Bhakti movement of India through many memorable voices of contemporary music like D.V. Paluskar, Kishore Amonkar, Bhimsen Joshi, M.S. Subbulakshmi, Pandit Jasraj, Girija Devi, Kumar Gandharva, Lata Mangeshkar, Sandhya Mukherjee and others..

Surdas, Tulsidas and Kabirdas in a sense have become the trinity of Bhakti from the Gangetic plain, Surdas, the blind poet, was a Krishna bhakta. Goswami Tulsidas the author of the Ramcharitmanas which brought the tales and values of the great esoteric Ramayana to the common folk in their language. Kabirdas’s faith and antecedents remained a mystery, so complete was his release from the bonds of socio-religious form. His Dohas reveal the truth of life in Haunting purity. The lyrics of this trinity are brought in this album by the celebrated Kumar Gandharva in his unique voice and style.

Main Gaoon Pad Gaoon (Kumar Shok)
Aho Pati So Upai Kachhu Kije (Surdas) - Des Malhar – Tritaal
Nirbhay Nirgun Gun Re Gaoonga (Kabir) – Nirguni Mand – Satwa
Piyaji Mhare Naina Aaage Rah Jyoji (Meera) – Bhimpalas – Kaharva
Kaun Thagva Nagariya Loot Layo (Kabir) – Mishra Kalyan – Kaharva
Sakhi Mori Nind Nasani Ho (Meera) – Mand Bhatiyar – Kaharva
Uthi Uthi Sakhi Sab Mangal Gai (Surdas) – Gaud Malhar – Tritaal
Avdhoota Yugan Yugan Ham Yogi (Kabir) – Nirguni Mand – Satwa
Udho Ankiyan Ati Anuragi (Surdas) – Bihagro – Kaharva
Mhara Olagiya Ghar Aayaji (Meera) – Bhairavi – Kaharva