Shabad Kirtan and the Reach of the Practice

In Sikhism, kirtan, properly shabad kirtan, the singing of the sacred word, is the principal form of worship in the gurdwara. The hymns of the Guru Granth Sahib were composed to specific musical measures, the ragas, and their singing by trained musicians is understood not as accompaniment to worship but as worship itself, the word of the Gurus sounded aloud. The tradition regards the singing of the shabad as a direct means of stilling the mind and uniting it with the divine Name.

Beyond its home traditions, kirtan has travelled widely in the modern period. Carried abroad by devotional movements in the twentieth century, the call-and-response chanting of Sanskrit names has been taken up in yoga studios and concert halls far from its origins, sometimes retaining and sometimes shedding its theological content. The practice's portability rests on the same feature that made it a mass movement in medieval India: it requires no qualification but participation, and its effect is produced by the doing.