Dil Mastana
Biography Dil Mastana
Dil Mastana Group
consists of performing artists belonging to the most notorious Rajasthani traditional music community, the Langas. Their melodies have preserved the ancient Indian musical tradition in its pure form. Their ancestors were professional musicians of the royal families and performed at weddings, childbirth celebrations and festivities. The repertoir displays the ornamented tunes of Rajasthani vocals in perfect musical harmony, accompanied by the echoing sound of “sindhi sarangi” and the rolling rhythm of tabla known from hindustani classical music.
History Members of Dil Mastana are A-class artists whom with their numerous festival performances in India and worldwide are distinctive representatives of the rich Indian musical tradition. Members of the group: Bachu Khan, and , Idu Khan: are A-class artists, members of Musafir and Maharaja have given concerts world-wide for several years.
The Manganiyar and Langa are both exclusively hereditary communities who make their livings as musical performers and genealogists for higher-caste patrons. Both groups are Muslim, but the Langa’s patrons are Muslim Sindhi Sipahis, whereas the Manganiyar’s patrons are mainly Hindus.
Manganiyars and Langas never intermarry with or teach their music to members of other Rajasthani communities. They speak of music being ‘in their blood’.
Their repertoires overlap—having experienced cross-fertilisation at the training camps instituted by the eminent folklorist Komal Kothari and on performance tours abroad, also first promoted by Komal Kothari. Another factor which possibly contributes to similarities in their music is the likelihood that they are both remnants of a group which were originally of the Dholi musician caste from which they appear to have emerged as late as the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Musical Instruments
The Langa’s main traditional instrument is the sindhi sarangi; Manganiyar’s is the kamaicha. Both are bowed stringed instruments with skin membrane sounding boards and many sympathetic strings. Both Langas and Manganiyars sing and play the dholak (double-headed barrel-drum), the kartal(wooded clappers), the morchan (jaws harp), and the ubiquitous harmonium.
