The music of Bengal, otherwise referred to as Bangla music, comprises a long tradition of religious and secular song-writing over a period of almost a millennium. Composed, as might be assumed, in the Bengali language, Bengali music spans a gamut of styles, though is most strongly affected by Hindustani music. It is worth mentioning that the both the national anthem, (Jana Gana Mana) and the national song (Vande Mataram) of India are in (slightly varied forms of) Bengali language.

Styles

Bengal is today split between the Indian state of West Bengal and the independent nation of Bangladesh.

The earliest music in Bengal was influenced by Sanskrit chants, and evolved under the influence of Vishnu poetry such as the 13th c. Gitagovindam by Jayadeva, whose work continues to be sung in many eastern Hindu temples. The middle ages saw a mixture of Hindu and Islamic trends when the musical tradition was formalized under the patronage of Nawabs and the powerful landlords bAro bhuiyAn.

Much of the early canon is devotional, as in the Hindu devotional songs of Ramprasad Sen , a bhakta who captures the Bengali ethos in his poetic, rustic and ecstatic vision of the Hindu goddess of time and destruction in her motherly incarnation, Ma Kali. Another writer of the time was Vidyapati. Notable in this devotional poetry is a rustic earthiness that does not distinguish between love in its carnal and devotional forms; some see connections between this and Tantra, which originated some time in the middle first millennium CE.

The Bauls (the word comes from Sanskrit batul, meaning divinely inspired insanity) are a group of Hindu mystic minstrels from the Bengal region, who sang primarily in the 18th and 19th centuries. They are thought to have been influenced greatly by the Hindu tantric sect of the Kartabhajas as well as by Sufi philosophers. Bauls traveled and sang in search of the internal ideal, Maner Manush (Man of the Heart), and descried 'superfluous' differences between religions.

By far the most defining expression of Bengali music, with an ouvre of over two thousand songs, was Rabindranath Tagore (known in Bengali as Robi Thakur and Gurudeb, the latter meaning Divine Teacher). His songs are affectionately called Rabindra Sangeet and run the gamut of romance in a lush Bengali setting to songs about universal love, often inspired by the lilas of Krishna and the transcendentalism of the Upanishads. Another influential body of work is that of Kazi Nazrul Islam, which constitutes what is known as Nazrul geeti.

Other Bengali music, shared by West Bengal and Bangladesh, is from the poetry and songs of Ananta Das Goswami , Kabir, Lalon Fakir, Atulprasad Sen , Dvijendralal Roy , and a large canon of patriotic songs from India's Independence movement. In modern times Western influence has resulted in the emergence of the phenomenon of Bengali bands, both in Dhaka and in Kolkata, as well as songs reflecting the joys and sorrows of the common man, jIbanmukhI gAn (songs from life). At the same time, singers like Ajoy Chakrabarty are working to bring back classical raga influence into bengali music.

See also: Bengali language, Music of Bangladesh, Music of West Bengal