'Yeh Tan Thaat Tambure Ka' by Vidya Rao

In this song Kabir evokes the image of our body, our self, being like the five-stringed musical instrument – the tambura. Made of the four elements and containing the fifth element – shoonyata or emptiness – we hold within our self the capacity to resound to a higher sound. But only if we learn to be perfectly strung – not too tight, not too loose, but just so!

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Find lyrics/translation of this song at
http://ajabshahar.com/songs/details/9...
Discover a universe of Bhakti, Sufi, Baul poetry and music at http://www.ajabshahar.org.
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(Click on Settings for subtitles in English & Hindi. Click ‘B’ on keyboard to remove the black background in subtitles.)

The song is beautifully composed and sung in the thumri idiom by Vidya Rao, a performer of thumri-dadra and ghazal, who has studied under the legendary late Naina Devi, Shanti Hiranand and Girija Devi. She also sings songs of Sufi and bhakti poets, verses from Hindu and Buddhist texts and Islamic forms of naat, soz and nauha.

Vidya has been advisor and friend to the Kabir Project since 2002, and she says, “Singing Kabir in thumri is all about bringing the emptiness of shoonya into the very ornamented form of the thumri. Kabir may be stark and evoking the emptiness (shoonya) of the sky (gagan). But when I think of the way the sky is adorned with the sun, the moon, the rainbow… How can you say it is empty? Emptiness has this adornment. And the adornment is empty. To me they are true, when they are together.”

Contact Vidya Rao at [email protected], www.vidyaraosinger.com
Vidya's CD is available here - http://www.amazon.in/dp/B00PH5KHMO

Get Vidya Rao's music at
https://www.oklisten.com/vidyarao

This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, a webspace dedicated to mystic poem and song, created by the Kabir Project team (http://www.ajabshahar.org ; http://www.kabirproject.org).

Song Credits:
Vocals: Vidya Rao
Tabla: Idries Khan
Sarangi: Bharat Bhushan Goswami

Translation: Vidya Rao

Video Credits:
Camera: Shabnam Virmani
Sound: Fireflys Post-Sound, Mumbai
Editing: Sharanya Gautam
Sub-Titling: Shruti Kulkarni
Collection: The Kabir Project

Date of Recording: 04 November 2006