Central India

The combination of dancing, singing, and instrumental music is essential to music making among the large tribal populations of central India. To the sounds of drums, flutes, and percussion, men and women of the Agaris, Bhīls, Gonds, Madias, and the many other ādivāsī groups of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Orissa dance and sing to celebrate seasons, harvests, gods, and life-cycle events. And here as elsewhere in India, folk and devotional music traditions abound among the majority Hindu population...