(Sanskrit: ‘telling, repeating, praising’; Hindi, Bengali etc. kīrtan; Tamil kīrtanam). In South Asian religious music a song of praise or devotion to a deity, or the singing of such songs, usually by a group, also known as bhajan(a) (see India §VI, 1 and 4). In principle open to all participants, kīrtana is an important vehicle for the bhakti devotional movements of popular Hinduism. The songs are strophic, often featuring antiphonal alternation between two groups or solo and chorus. Many regional varieties exist such as the nām-kīrtan of North India, which like the Sufi zikr comprises the endless repetition of the deity's name, or the Bengali tāl-gān kīrtan involving complex rhythmic structures. In South India the kīrtanam overlaps with the kriti genre of art-music, whose poetry is devotional in content but performed by soloists in classical style.
RICHARD WIDDESS