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RESEARCH CONCERTS
Research concerts are designed to share our ongoing work with an engaged audience. Whether we are conducting interviews, recording performances, capturing songs, documenting instrumental sounds, or observing dance, this research is not only valuable to us—it also sparks curiosity in others. These sessions offer an opportunity for people to join as observers or active participants, asking questions or offering honest feedback. While research must happen regardless, opening the process to the public enriches both artists and researchers. It creates a space where fieldwork becomes a shared, dynamic, and meaningful experience.
Rhythms of Transition
Research Project on the Langa Musicians of Rajasthan
The Langa Project centers on the rich musical heritage of the Langa community of Western Rajasthan—hereditary Muslim musicians renowned for their exceptional artistry. Traditionally tied to patronage relationships with the Sindhi Sipahi community, the Langas have passed down their musical knowledge through generations within families and peer networks. Concentrated primarily in the districts of Jodhpur, Barmer, and Jaisalmer, they remain a vital but underrepresented part of Rajasthan’s cultural landscape. This project aims to document, map, write about, and co-curate with Langa artists, bringing visibility to their lived realities and creative traditions.
Perpetuating the Phad
From performative scroll painting to interactive 3D Game
The Phad tradition is a centuries-old storytelling form from Rajasthan that blends visual art, music, and oral narrative through hand-painted scrolls depicting the lives of local deities like Pabuji. These portable, sacred scrolls come alive in night-long performances by Bhopas, who animate them through song, gesture, and instruments like the ravanhatta. Our research concerts bring this tradition into dialogue with ethnographic insight, offering context and reflection alongside live performance to reveal the Phad as a complex, lived practice. These events are part of our larger project, Perpetuating the Phad, which critically explores the intersection of tradition and technology by translating the performative scroll into an interactive 3D game. This game preserves the Phad’s nonlinear storytelling and multisensory depth while making it accessible to global audiences, demonstrating how digital tools can sustain and revitalize intangible cultural heritage.
हम मीरा - Mira
Exploring the Manganiyar Repertoire through the Kamaicha
The Manganiyars are a hereditary community of musicians rooted in rural Rajasthan, primarily Barmer and Jaisalmer districts. Central to their tradition is the Kamaicha, a distinctive round bowed string instrument that defines their unique sound.
While the practice of music remains vibrant among young Manganiyar musicians, traditional instruments like the Kamaicha face significant decline, with only a few masters remaining. As part of our instrument preservation initiative, we organize research concerts featuring Kamaicha masters from Hamira village, the epicenter of this ancient tradition.
