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Bhajan a genre of devotional songs sung in praise of the divine. Initially only Hindu devotional songs were called bhajan. But with the widespread popularity of the genre during the 16th century, it no longer remained confined to a particular community. Bhajans began to be composed by different communities, and a significant number of sufis, saints, ascetics, poets and singers became famous for their bhajans. The fundamental theme of the bhajan is total dedication to the divine and the idea that all caste and social divisions are false. Famous composers of bhajans include Meerabai as well as ascetics like Dadu, Kabir and Rajjab. The message of humanism contained in these songs helped a great deal in eradicating religious bigotry. A song of Kabir says, 'God is found not in mosques or temples but in the hearts of
people'. In one of his bhajans, Dadu says, 'Hindus and Muslims cannot be divided into separate
communities'. In Bengal, lalon shah and hasan raja also proclaimed the same truths. Mahatma Gandhi's favourite bhajan was 'Ishwar, Allah tera nam, sabko sumati de Bhagavan' (Ishwar, Allah are your names, O God give everyone good sense).
Though bhajans have been composed predominantly in Hindi,
they have also been composed in Bangla as well as other regional languages
of India. Among the composers of bhajans in Bangla are rammohun
roy, ramprasad
sen, rabindranath
tagore, atulprasad
sen, dwijendralal
roy, rajanikanta
sen and
kazi nazrul islam. [Krishnapada Mandal]
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