Bhajan: Payo Ji Ram Ratan Dhan by D.V. Pulaskar (Audio CD)

The spiritual, ritualistic and devotional superstructure of India is a glittering multiplicity of faiths, icons, systems and ways of living. The Bhakti cult is one supersystem which germinated perhaps around the 5th century A.D. and made its most voluminous contributions between the 15th and 18th centuries A.D. The cult was concretized by the great Bhaktas - best known being names like Meerabai, Kabirdas, Surdas and Tulsidas-all saint singers, who spoke and sang the language of the common folk-extolling the virtues of good thoughts, good deeds and an existence of simplicity, honest work and devotion to one Supreme Lord. Thus the Bhakti cult was a movement against the tyranny of ritualism, casteism, untouchability and other aberrations which had crept into formal religious practices. The songs of these innumerable great savants-ranging from the Alvars and Nayanars of the South to the Gurus of Punjab, from Meera and Narsi Mehta in the West through the saint poets of the Braj region like Sur and Tulsi to the Vaishnavite mendicants of the beautiful body of devotional literature in India, serving a purpose different from the esoteric Vedic chants, mantras, stotras and stutis, or the great philosophical scriptures and epics of this land.

This ‘BHAJAN’ series of HMV brings the immortal words of the Bhakti movement of India through many memorable voices of contemporary music like D.V. Paluskar, Kishore Amonkar, Bhimsen Joshi, M.S. Subbulakshmi, Pandit Jasraj, Girija Devi, Kumar Gandharva, Lata Mangeshkar, Sandhya Mukherjee and others.

D.V. Paluskar will perhaps remain the most celebrated bhajan exponent in modern times - such was the pious elegance and simple fluidity of expression which flowed from his soul. His handful of 78 RPM recordings of bhajans made by HMV have become immortal and have versions rendered by innumerable other artistes.

D. V. Paluskar
Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram
Jab Janakinath
Thumak Chalat Ramachandra
Payo Ji Maine Ramratan
Chalo Man Ganga Jamuna Teer
Raga Shree - Hari Ke Charan Kamal