Epic poetry from India

Alain Daniélou
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

Alain Daniélou (1907-1994) was a French musicologist and Indiologist. His contributions to the history and philosophy of Indian religion are numerous but the part of his accolades that interests me most is his work as an ethno-musicolgist on the Indian subcontinent. He recorded India's traditional music extensively throughout the mid 20th century. Some of these recordings (from the early 50s) appear on the album The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, Vol XII: India. As always with the Columbia series that were edited by Alan Lomax, the music comes with a load of explanatory texts and photos. There was however no picture of Nanku, Bachau, or the Nāgārā player that perform on Virahā, an example of the oral epic poetry traditions of the Ahir people. The track was recorded in Benares (or Varanasi) where Daniélou was a professor at the Hindi University at the time.