An experiment of its own kind, this vedic rock album “Mrityunjaya” from the Indian band “Agni” is based on ancient Indian classical music and mainly on vedic chants. This particular song is called Tandav.
But I doubt if there is anybody today who can perform an actual “Tandav” dance, especially the aggressive Rudra Tandav. Tandav is said to be originated in Shiva . Lord Shiva also called Rudra, Mrutyunjaya etc represents the concept of destruction in the trinity of vedic Gods.
The trinity of Vedic Gods is as follows:
G enerator – Brahma
O bserver – Vishnu
D estroyer – Shiva
There are 7 types of Tandav dance. The Rudra Tandav being the dance of an angry Shiva during destruction. The other Tandava dance forms are Tripura Tandava, Sandhya Tandava, Samara Tandava, Kaali Tandava, Uma Tandava and Gauri Tandava.
I think this song is based on Shivaranjani Raga. According to the band The song is a humble tribute from a mortal man to the Eternal One who is the creator, sustainer and destroyer.
Enjoy the Music.
[…] Dig deeper into the topic here […]
Jacob
The rudra tandav is a very very difficult dance form to perform and its believed that today only a handful of the dancer masters who know this art are left.
But I am not sure where one can find them in India today. I had read somewhere once that Birju Bawra came close to performing a true rudra tandav dance, but I dont have much information about this either!
I listened to the vedic rock. Incredible! I love the lyrics, the music, where can I find rudra tandava though?
Che, probably you will also like this one
http://hitxp.wordpress.com/2007/09/07/music-is-what-feelings-sound-like/
Vedic rock is just one of those plenty of such new experiments in India combining ancient Indian music and lyrics with modern instruments as well as ancient instruments.
I found this site looking for Agni, which I first enountered on youtube. So interesting and educational, I haven’t quite gotten where I intended to go in my search.
This band, and especially this video, is completely incredible. I love it. Vedic rock dwarfs all the new stuff we have here in America. I am happy to be left in speechless awe.