Kirtan : Baru Chandidas’ Srikrishnakirtan is a good example of the art of singing and is

important to both as a poetic song and as a verse play. It is thought that it also included
dancing. Srikrishnakirtan contains a total of 418 verses, each with a different tune, tal and
style of singing. It is a kind of pastoral song, narrating a pastoral love story and
portraying village life. There are three characters in the song: Radha, Krishna and Badai.
Many believe that Srikrishnakirtan was the source of jhumur song and jatra.

Srikrishnakirtan mentions 32 ragas and raginis, among them,

aher,kahu,ramagiri,gurjari,desh baradi, deshag, dhanusi, patamanjari, pahadi, vangal
varadi, varadi, basanta, vibhas, velabali, bhatiyali, bhairavi, mallar, kalava, shauri, shri.
The tals which are found in the song are yati, krida, ektali, laghushekhar, rupak, etc.

Srikrishnakirtancan be found in ancient writings on music, such as aher (abhir),

kahu(kakubh), ramagiri(ramakri), dhanusi (dhansri), deshag, etc. The raga and raginis
metioned in Gitagovinda are also found in Srikrishnakirtan, such as yati, rupak and ektali.
In Gitagovinda, however, there were more verses written in patamanjari.

Vidyapati also made important contributions to Bangla songs. Although his songs were
written in Majhili, they were once very popular in Bengal. His Vaishnava stanzas are
highly regarded,, and his themes vary between spiritual love and secular love. Later
lyricists tried to emulate him; rabindranath tagore himself admirer of Vidyapati and set
some of his songs to music and sang them himself.

Like Jaydev, Vidyapati also wrote Vashnava songs based on the Radha-Krishna theme. A
century later, Govindads, another Vaishnava poet of Bengal, followed the footsteps of
Vidyapati and became popularly known as the second Vidyapati. Rabindranath admired
the Givindads and composed a tune for his song. “Sundari radha ayoe bani” and included
it in the Bhanusingha. Thakuker Padayali , Vidyapati’s verses are beautiful for both
words and tune. The kirtan singers of Bengal have immortalized him by including his
verses in Rasakirtan and Palakirtan.

Many Vaishnava poets, inspired by Chatinya, wrote songs based on the story of Radh and
Krishna and made popular all over Bengal. These verses, also find the aesthetic
sentiment’. Apart from Chandidas and Vidyapati, other poets who contributed to this
genre include Govindadas, jnanadas, maladhar, basu, sheikh faizullah, syed sultan,
Balaram Das, Lochan Das, Basudev Ghosh, Maruri gupto, and Narahari Das.
In Bengal from ancient times, kirtan was sung in praise of the divine, Buddhist sang
charya, which is in fact another form of kirtan. While all songs which glorify God and
describe his different names and attributes are kirtan, Chaitanya gave a specific form to
kirtan and divided it into two types: kirtan which names God and kirtan which describes
the doing of God. There are five parts of kirtan: katha, donha, akhar, tuk,and chhut.
Another part of kirtan is jhumur. The influence of Jhumur can be seen in Bangla folk
songs as well as in modern songs, nazrul islam used jhumur in a number of songs such as
‘Churir tale nurir mala’, ‘Tepantarer mathe badhu he’, ‘Rangamatir pathe lo’, etc.

Kirtan songs spread throughout Bengal towards the end of 16 th century, developing into
four branches: garanhati, manoharshahi, reneti, and mandarini. The manoharsahi kirtan
was the most influential, particualrlu during the 18 th and 19th centuries. It has also
influenced the panchali.

Dhapkirtan is a type of pastoral song that developed from the kirtan. Among these
popular writers of this form were Rupchand Adhikari (1722-1792) of Mursgidabad and
madhusudan kinnar (Madhukan) of Banagram (Jessore). These songs reveal the influence
of panchali and jatra. Unlike the classical kirtan, however, dhapkirtan song, ‘Ore balo
sakhi balo, keno micche kare chhalo’ (Ask him, Friend, ask him, why he is deceiving
me), from Mayarkhela clearly reveals the influence of Madhukan.