This volume seeks to apply an ethnomuscicological approach to the study of Sikh Sabad Kirtan that includes oth a detailed nalysis of the musical system as well s exploring the dimension of contedt in the analysis of the musical sound.

The performance of devotional music in India has been an active, sonic conduit where spiritual indentities are shaped and forged; where both history and mythology are out and remembered daily. For the followers of Sikhism, Sabad Kirtan, congregational hymn singing has been the vehicle through which text, melody and ritual act as respositories of memory, elevating memory to a place where historical and social events can be reenacted and memorialized on levels of spiritual significance.