Music of Himachal Pradesh

The music of Himachal Pradesh includes many kinds of folk songs from the area, many of which are sung without accompaniment.

Styles
Jhoori is a type of song that celebrates extramarital romance.The word means lover. It is popular in Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur, and is accompanied by a female dance called jhoomar.

Laman songs from Kullu Valley are another type of love song.

Saṃskāra songs are sung at festivals and celebrations by women of Himachal Pradesh. These songs are based on ragas, which are compositions of Indian classical music, as are the martial jhanjhotis.

Ainchaliyan are religious songs, sung at the bride's house after a wedding and by women at the home of an unmarried girl.

In Chamba-Pangi, wandering musicians play a khanjari (tambourine) and perform, also using string puppets.

Percussion
Himachal Pradesh folk music features a wide variety of drums, including dammama, damanght, gajju, doru, dhaunsa, nagara, dholku, nagarth, tamaka, dafale, dhol, dolki and hudak. Non-drum percussion instruments include the ghanta and ghariyal (gongs), chimta (tongs), manjira and jhanjh (cymbals), ghungru (bells), thali (platter) and kokatha murchang.

Winds
There are also wind instruments like algoja/algoza (twin flutes), peepni, shehnai (oboe), bishudi (flute), karnal (straight brass trumpet) and ranasingha (curved brass trumpet).

Strings
String instruments include gramyang, riwana (a small fretless lute), sarangi (bowed lute), jumang, ruman, ektara and kindari davatra.

Singers
Mohit Chauhan's 'morni', Karnail Rana's various folk songs, Dheeraj's love songs and Thakur Das Rathi's 'Naatis' has given great contribution to the music of Himachal Pradesh. New initiatives like Mountain Music Project and Laman are giving Himachali folk a contemporary sound.