The music of Bengal, also referred to as Bangla music, comprises a long tradition of religious and secular song-writing over a period of almost a millennium. Composed with lyrics in the Bengali language

Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

, Bengali music spans a wide variety of styles.

Styles

Bengal

Bengal

Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

 is today split between the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state of West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

 and the independent nation of Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

.

The earliest music in Bengal was influenced by Sanskrit chants, and evolved under the influence of Vishnu poetry such as the 13th-century Gitagovindam by Jayadeva

Jayadeva

Jayadeva was a Sanskrit poet circa 1200 AD. He is most known for his composition, the epic poem Gita Govinda, which depicts the divine love of Krishna-an avatar of Vishnu and his consort, Radha, and it is mentioned that Radha is greater than Hari, and is considered an important text in the...

, whose work continues to be sung in many eastern Hindu

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 temples. The Middle Ages saw a mixture of Hindu and Islamic trends when the musical tradition was formalized under the patronage of Nawab

Nawab

A Nawab or Nawaab is an honorific title given to Muslim rulers of princely states in South Asia. It is the Muslim equivalent of the term "maharaja" that was granted to Hindu rulers....

s and the powerful landlords bAro bhuiyAn.

Much of the early canon is devotional, as in the Hindu devotional songs of Ramprasad Sen

Ramprasad Sen

' was a Shakta poet of eighteenth century Bengal. His bhakti poems, known as Ramprasadi, are still popular in Bengal—they are usually addressed to the Hindu goddess Kali and written in Bengali...

, a bhakta

Bhakti

In Hinduism Bhakti is religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine.Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Svayam Bhagavan.Bhakti can be used of either...

 who captures the Bengali ethos in his poetic, rustic ,and ecstatic vision of the Hindu goddess of time and destruction in her motherly incarnation, Ma Kali

Kali

' , also known as ' , is the Hindu goddess associated with power, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" . Hence, Kāli is...

. Another writer of the time was Vidyapati. Notable in this devotional poetry is an earthiness that does not distinguish between love in its carnal and devotional forms; some see connections between this and Tantra

Tantra

Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....

, which originated some time in the middle of the first millennium CE

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

.

The Baul

Baul

Baul .Though Bauls comprise only a small fraction of the Bengali population, their influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the Baul tradition was included in the list of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO.-Etymology:The origin of the word...

s (meaning "divinely inspired insanity") are a group of mystic minstrels (Muslim sufis and Hindu Baishnos) from the Bengal region, who sang primarily in the 17th and 18th centuries. They are thought to have been influenced greatly by the Hindu tantric sect of the Kartabhaja

Kartabhaja

The Kartabhaja , also known as the Kartabhaja Sampradaya , literally, the Worshippers of the Master, is a religious community of West Bengal in eastern India, which came in to prominence in the mid 18th century...

s as well as by Muslim Sufi philosophers. Bauls traveled and sang in search of the internal ideal, Moner Manush (Man of the Heart or the inner being), and described "superfluous" differences between religions.Lalon Fakir, alternatively known as Lalon Shah, who lived in the 19th century in and around Kushtia, is considered to be the greatest of all bauls.

By far the most defining expression of Bengali music, with an ouvre of over two thousand songs, was Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...

 (known in Bengali as Robi Thakur and Gurudeb, the latter meaning "Divine Teacher"). His songs are affectionately called Rabindra Sangeet

Rabindra Sangeet

Rabindra Sangeet , also known as Tagore Songs in English, is a form of music composed by Rabindranath Tagore who added a new dimension to the musical concept of India in general and Bengal in specific....

, and cover topics from devotion, love, nature and seasons, and patriotism. Tagore's earlier works had been inspired by the lilas of Krishna while his latter works involved transcendentalism of the Upanishad

Upanishad

The Upanishads are philosophical texts considered to be an early source of Hindu religion. More than 200 are known, of which the first dozen or so, the oldest and most important, are variously referred to as the principal, main or old Upanishads...

s. Some of the notable Rabindra Sangeet artistes are Shantideb Ghosh, Shailajaranjan Majumdar, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay

Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay

Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay also known as Hemanta Mukherjee was an Bengali singer, composer and producer. He sang in Hindi films under the name Hemant Kumar.-Early life:...

, Kanika Bandyopadhyay

Kanika Bandyopadhyay

Kanika Banerjee was an Indian Rabindra Sangeet singer.-Early life:Born on October 12, 1924 at Sonamukhi in Bankura district, Kanika joined Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan in West Bengal, India. She was trained in both classical and Rabindrasangeet in Sangeet Bhavana at Santiniketan...

, Debabrata Biswas

Debabrata Biswas

Debabrata Biswas , also known as George Biswas or George-da , was an Indian Rabindra Sangeet singer.-Early life:...

, Suchitra Mitra

Suchitra Mitra

Suchitra Mitra was an Indian singer and composer, as well as a well-respected exponent of Rabindra Sangeet or the songs of Bengal's poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore. As an academic she remained a Professor and the Head of 'Rabindra Sangeet Department' at the Rabindra Bharati University for many...

, Pankaj Kumar Mullick, Santosh Sengupta, Subinoy Roy, Chinmoy Chatterjee, Ashoketaru Bandopadhyay, Sagar Sen, Supriti Ghosh, Sumitra Sen, Ritu Guha, Purabi Mukhopadhyay, Purba Dam, Sushil Mullick, Arghya Sen, Mohan Singh, Sharmila Roy Pommo, Swastika Mukhopadhyay, Indrani Sen

Indrani Sen

Indrani Sen is a Bengali Indian exponent of Rabindra Sangeet and Bengali songs. She studied at the Bengal Music College, a music training college affiliated with the prestigious University of Calcutta....

, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Promita Mallik, Rezwana Chowdhury Bonna.

Another influential body of work is that of Kazi Nazrul Islam

Kazi Nazrul Islam

Kazi Nazrul Islam , sobriquet Bidrohi Kobi, was a Bengali poet, musician and revolutionary who pioneered poetic works espousing intense spiritual rebellion against fascism and oppression. His poetry and nationalist activism earned him the popular title of Bidrohi Kobi...

, which constitutes what is known as Nazrul geeti

Complete Works of Kazi Nazrul Islam

Nazrul Geeti or Nazrul Sangeet, literally "music of Nazrul," refer to the works of Kazi Nazrul Islam, a Bengali poet and national poet of Bangladesh and active revolutionary during the Indian Independence Movement. Nazrul Sangeet incorporate revolutionary notions as well as more spiritual,...

.Some of the notable Nazrulgeeti singers from India include Suprova Sircar, Dhirendra Chandra Mitra, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, Dr. Anjali Mukhopadhyay, Dhiren Bose, Adhir Bagchi, Purabi Dutta, Firoza Begum

Firoza Begum

Firoza Begum, also known as Susan Solomon, was a Jewish Indian actress. She is of Bene Israel heritage. Firoza acted in several Bollywood and Mollywood films.-References:...

, Anup Ghoshal

Anup Ghoshal

Anup Ghoshal , is a singer in Hindi films and other vernacular Indian films, especially Bengali language films. He won the West Bengal Assembly elections of 2011 on a Trinamool Congress ticket from the Uttarpara in Hooghly district, defeating his nearest rival by a large margin of 40, 000...

, and, Bangaladeshi singer Sohrab Hossain.

Numerous other poets and composers had laid the foundation for the rich repertoire of Bengali music in the 19th century and early 20th century. Some stalwarts of this ear include Ramnidhi Gupta (commonly known as Nidhu Babu

Nidhu Babu

Ramnidhi Gupta , commonly known as Nidhu Babu, is one of the great reformers of Bengali tappā music.Nidhu Babu was born in Kumartuli in northern Calcutta, where he grew up learning Persian and some English...

), Lalon Fakir, Atulprasad Sen

Atulprasad Sen

Atulprasad Sen was an Bengali composer, lyricist and singer. He is principally remembered as a musician and composer. His songs centred around three broad subjects- patriotism, devotion and love...

, Dwijendralal Ray

Dwijendralal Ray

Dwijendralal Ray , also known as D. L. Ray , was a Bengali poet, playwright, and musician. He was known for his Hindu mythological and Nationalist historical plays and songs known as Dwijendrageeti or the Songs of Dwijendralal, which number over 500, create a separate sub-genre of Bengali Music...

, Rajanikanta Sen

Rajanikanta Sen

Rajanikanta Sen was a Bengali poet and composer, known for his devotional compositions, as well as his patriotic songs...

 and a large canon of patriotic songs from India's Independence movement.

Modern Bengali music

Modern Bengali music has been enriched by Indian singers like Hemanta Mukhopadhayay, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay

Sandhya Mukhopadhyay

Sandhya Mukhopadhyay is an Indian singer and musician, specialising in Bengali music. She was born in Kolkata, India. She is also known as Sandhya Mukherjee.She was very close friends with the late Alpana Banerjee...

, Manna Dey

Manna Dey

Prabodh Chandra Dey , better known by his nickname Manna Dey , is a playback singer in Bengali Assamese and Hindi films. Along with Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, he was a part of Indian film playback music from the 1950s to the 1970s. He has recorded more than 3500 songs over the course of...

, Geeta Dutta, Sachin Dev Burman, Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional...

, Asha Bhonsle, Kishore Kumar, Dhananjay Bhattacharya, Shyamal Mitra, Tarun Bandopadhyay, Satinath Mukhopadhyay, Shreya Ghoshal, Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, Sudhirlal Chakraborty, Jaganmoy Mitra, Robin Majumdar, Bechu Dutta, Gourikedar Bhattacharya, Satya Chowdhury, Sachin Gupta, Subir Sen, Dilip Kumar Roy, Uma Bose, Kanan Devi, Sabitri Ghosh, Ila Ghosh, Kamala Jharia, Angurbala, Indubala, Utpala Sen, Gayatri Bose, Supriti Ghosh, Alpana Banerjee, Protima Banerjee, Sabita Chowdhury; and, Azam Khan, Abdul Jabbar, Apel Mahmud, Ferdousi Rahman, Khurshid Alam, Bashir Ahmed, Syed Abdul Hadi, Shahnaz Rahmatullah, Kalim Sharafi,Abida Sultana, Kanak Chapa, Shakila Zafar, Samina Chowdhury, Happy Akhond, Lucky Akond, Maqsood, Arnob, Farida Parvin, Latif SaNi, Bari Siddiki, Anusheh Anadil, Sabina Yasmin

Sabina Yasmin

Sabina Yasmin is a popular singer of Bangladeshi origin. She is renowned in Bangladesh for her patriotic songs as well as her playback singing in Bangladeshi cinema...

, and Runa Laila

Runa Laila

Runa Laila is a singer of the Indian subcontinent who is from Bangladesh. She started her career from Pakistan film industry and is effective in Ghazals also. She made a hit pair with famous singer Ahmed Rushdi after replacing Mala. She also has done numerous playbacks for movies in Bangladesh,...

 hailing from Bangladesh. Krishna Chandra Dey, Bhabani Charan Das, Radharani Debi, Mrinalkanti Ghosh, Pannalal Bhattacharya, Hiralal Sarkhel, Nirmal Bhattacharya, and Gitashree Chhabi Bandopadhyay were famous for their renditions of devotional songs, while Abbasuddin Ahmed, Abdul Alim, Rohoman Boyati, Indromohon Rajbongshi, Kiran Chandra Roy, Nirmalendu Chowdhury were stalwarts in singing Bengali folk music. Sanat Sinha and Japamala Ghosh carved out a niche in children's songs.

Bangla Music is highly debt-ed to legends like Kazi Nazrul Islam, Rabindranath Tagore, Jasim Uddin, Fokir Lalon SaNi, Baul Abdul Karim, Hason Raza, Kari Amiruddin, Kobi Zalal and many more.

All traditional Bangla music are based on classical music or on its variations. Some of the most talented classical musicians of the sub-continent come from Bangladesh including Ustad Allauddin Khan, Sangeetacharya Tarapada Chakraborty, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Manas Chakraborty, Ustad Ayet Ali Khan, Ustad Abed Hossain Khan and so on.

Notable Bengali music composers active in Calcutta (Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

) in the 1930s through the 1980s include Himangshu Dutta, Kamal Dasgupta, Rai Chand Boral, Timirbaran Bhattacharya, Pankaj Kumar Mullick, Anupam Ghatak, Sachin Dev Burman, Durga Sen, Kalipada Sen, Gopen Mullick, Nachiketa Ghosh, Robin Chattopadhyay, Hemanta Mukhopadhayay, Salil Chowdhury, Sudhin Dasgupta, Shyamal Mitra, Pabitra Chattopadhyay, Anal Chattopadhyay, Anil Bagchi, Abhijit Bandopadhyay, Rahul Deb Burman, Ajoy Das, and Bappi Lahiri, while Ajoy Bhattacharya, Hiren Bose, Subodh Purakayastha, Pranab Roy, Sailen Roy, Gouri Prasanna Majumdar

Gouri Prasanna Majumdar

Gouri Prasanna Majumdar was an eminent Bengali lyricist. He is most commonly associated with the golden age of Bengali cinema, namely the black and white era, when he penned several enduring classics for the evergreen movies like Anyay Abichar, Maqsad, Tinmurti, Aparupa, Anusandhan, and Aaj Ka...

, Shyamal Gupta, Pulak Bandopadhyay and Mukul Dutta were well-known lyricists.

Western influence has resulted in the emergence of the phenomenon of Bangla band

Bangla band

A Bangla band is any musical band that performs solely or mainly in the Bengali language and which uses Western principles of music.As Western influences became more widespread, Bangla bands became popular with young people in the 1970s, both in India and Bangladesh, and have since become...

s, both in Dhaka

Dhaka

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

 and in Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

, as well as songs reflecting the joys and sorrows of the common man, Jibonmukhi Gaan (songs from life). Some famous Bangladeshi bands are Miles, Nagar Baul, Ark, LRB, Warfaze, Feedback, Souls, Prometheus, Renaissance, Nova, Obscure, Chime, Artcell, Aurthohin, Maqsood O Dhaka, Black, Lalon, Bangla, Shironaamhin, Cryptic fate, Tishma

Tishma

Tishma is one of the most successful pop music/rock music stars in Bangladesh, and she is the artist who entirely changed and modernised the path for Bangladeshi female singers.-Music career:...

. Bands like Mohiner Ghoraguli, Bhoomi, Chandrabindoo, Porosh Pathor, Fossils, Cactus, Lakkihichara, Krosswindz and Insomnia of Kolkata, India are also notable. At the same time, singers like Ajoy Chakraborty

Ajoy Chakraborty

Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty is an Indian Hindustani classical vocalist. He belongs to the Patiala gharana.-Early life and background:Chakrabarty was born in Bengal to Ajit Chakrabarty in a Hindu Brahmin family. They moved to India from his homeland, Bangladesh during the partition and raised his two...

 and Kaushiki Chakraborty are working to bring back classical raga

Raga

A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...

influence into Bengali music.