A bhajan is a Hindu devotional song, a hymn of love and praise addressed to a deity, and by extension the practice of singing such songs, whether alone or in a gathering. Where the related kirtan is characteristically the responsive chanting of divine names, the bhajan is more often a composed song with verses, expressing longing, surrender, praise or the poet-saint's intimate relationship with the divine. Bhajans are typically simple in melody and open in form, admitting improvisation and the free addition of verses, and they are sung in the languages of the people rather than in Sanskrit, which is central to their character and their reach.
The bhajan is the everyday music of Hindu devotion, sung in homes, at roadside shrines, in temples and at communal gatherings, requiring neither priest nor prescribed ritual. Its purpose is to cultivate bhakti, loving devotion, and to draw the singer and hearers into the felt presence of the deity through the emotion of the song.