A living archive of Indian music
The people, music, and stories worth carrying forward.
Discover Indian musicians, explore their journeys, and spend time with the music they have given us.
New to this music? Start with our introduction to Indian classical music.
From the archive
Discover the musicians
Names many listeners already know, across instruments, voice and generations. Each page carries their training, their teachers and students, and music to sit with. This is a welcome, not an order of merit.
Ustad Zakir Hussain
Tabla · Punjab
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia
Bansuri · Maihar (disciple of Annapurna Devi)
Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan
Sitar · Etawah (Imdadkhani) gharana
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi
Khayal vocal · Kirana
Ustad Bismillah Khan
Shehnai · Benares temple and Dumraon court lineage
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan
Sarod · Senia Bangash
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma
Santoor · Jammu lineage
Begum Parveen Sultana
Khayal vocal · Patiala
Gangubai Hangal
Khayal vocal · Kirana
Explore further
Musicians you may not know yet
Historical figures, quieter masters and musicians still building their work. These names change from day to day.
Ways in
Follow a thread
A musician leads to a lineage, a lineage to an instrument, an instrument to a recording. Begin wherever your curiosity is.
Musicians
Every page in the archive, A–Z.
Gharanas & lineages
How training passed from teacher to student.
Instruments
What they are, and who shaped their playing.
Listen
Recordings and performances by the musicians in the archive.
Or read about Pandit Santosh Sant — Bansuri.
Contribute
Help the archive grow
Know a musician, a musical tradition or a story we haven’t included? Share what you know and help others discover it.
The journal
Latest stories
Indian classical music: an introduction
What raga and tala actually are, how a concert is shaped, why lineage matters, and where to start listening. A first map of a very large territory.
The corporate gurukul: how ITC built a music school around a tradition
When princely patronage ended, a tobacco company built a residential campus in Kolkata and called it a gurukul. What the documented record shows about how that transplant worked — and what it does not say.
How accompaniment becomes a conversation
The tabla, sarangi and harmonium players beside the soloist are not keeping time. Here is what they are actually doing, and why their names took so long to appear on the poster.
Begin listening
If you are new to Indian classical music
Start with a single raga. Let it unfold slowly — these performances are meant to be sat with rather than sampled.
Start here
Aavan Kaye
Mogubai Kurdikar - Topic
A label-distributed release; raga and recording date are not stated on the release.
Start here
The Majestic Voice of Dhrupad
Saregama Hindustani Classical
Published on the label's own channel.
Start here
Raga Jhinjhoti
Jhinjhoti · Prasar Bharati Archives
From the national broadcaster's own archive.
Start here
Suprabhat, Episode 67 — Raag Kabiri Bhairav
Prasar Bharati Archives
A Doordarshan recital published by the public broadcaster's archive.
Browse all recordings and performances. Looking for film music instead? Film songs have their own section.
Why this archive exists
This is a personal project by Deekshant Malvi: my contribution, as a software developer, to an art I love. So much of what makes Indian music extraordinary lives in memory — in lineages, in concerts people still talk about, in teachers whose names are known to only a few hundred students.
The aim here is modest and long-term: to gather what can be verified, to say plainly what cannot, and to keep adding. Nothing on these pages is invented, and every claim carries its source.
If you know something that belongs here — a memory, a photograph, a correction — it would be a privilege to receive it. And if you are close to one of these musicians, you can ask to help look after their page, with an editor reading every change before it is published.