In this song Kabir evokes the image of our body, our self, being like the five-stringed musical instrument – the tambura. Made of the four elements and containing the fifth element – shoonyata or emptiness – we hold within our self the capacity to resound to a higher sound. But only if we learn to be perfectly strung – not too tight, not too loose, but just so!
Vidya Rao is a performer of thumri-dadra and ghazal. Disciple of the legendary singer, the late Vidushi Naina Devi, she has continued her study under Vidushi Shanti Hiranand and Vidushi Girija Devi. Her initial training in khayal was under the late Prof. B.N. Datta and thereafter under Pandit Mani Prasad. Her repertoire also includes the songs of medieval sufi and bhaktipoets, verses from Hindu and Buddhist texts and the Islamic forms of naat, soz and nauha.
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