Foreword
As much interest has been roused of late in Indian music it is hoped that the present little volume giving some idea of the words of Indian songs may be found useful.
These songs come from the actual repertory of an Indian singer of to-day, and most of them have been taken down from his dictation as he has learned them—not from books (although many of them are to be found in books), but handed on verbally from singers who were his teachers. Some are the singer’s own composition, for often in India, as of old in Europe, bard and musician are one. Most of them are in Urdu and Persian, and are songs of the Sufic tradition. Others are in Hindi, and show how near in thought and inspiration are the poets of the two different languages and creeds. Some are religious songs, sung by devotees at the shrines of Muslim Saints or in Hindu temples; others again are the lighter songs of everyday to be heard in the streets; but all are well-known in India and widely sung. This little collection then aims at giving some suggestion of the intellectual content of the songs which are wedded to that music of dream and reverie which we in the West are now beginning to appreciate.
