Singing Emptiness: Kumar Gandharva Performs the Poetry of Kabir

by Linda Hess

Overview

Now in paperback, the journey of a great Hindustani classical vocalist's search for the voice of emptiness.

Here, two men, five centuries apart, make contact with each other through poetry, music, and performance. Kumar Gandharva, the great twentieth-century Hindustani classical vocalist, sings Kabir, the great fifteenth-century poet. Kabir composed poetry that evoked a space called nirgun or shunya—something without qualities or boundaries, empty—which challenged listeners to know it and to know themselves. Kumar Gandharva, drawn to Kabir and other poets of the nirgun experience, seeks the voice that can actually sing emptiness. Singing Emptiness includes a substantial introductory essay, bilingual texts of 30 songs, and contributions by two renowned Indian writers, U. R. Ananthamurthy and Ashok Vajpeyi.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857429759
Publisher:	Seagull Books
Publication date:	06/24/2021
Series:	Enactments
Pages:	166
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Linda Hess teaches in the Dept. of Religious Studies at Stanford University and is co-director of Stanford’s Center for South Asia. Her previous work on North Indian bhakti poetry and performance includes The Bijak of Kabir and numerous articles on Kabir, Tulsidas and Ramlila performance.

Table of Contents

On Transliteration
Preface: The Story of this Book
'Kumar Gandharva': A Poem by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Introduction
About the Texts and Translations
A Special Recording
The Songs
Notes of the Songs
'Avsan / "Passing Away"': An Essay by Ashok Vajpeyi
Acknowledgements
Bibliography