Melodic links from the past . . .

In the time of Alexander, what must have been the music played in the north western provinces which he annexed and fertilized with enough Greek genes to last for the next few centuries as distinct communities? I like to think there would have been predecessors of instruments like the Rubab, the Santoor and the Pakhawaj. Pashtun music as well as Irani music has these instruments like the Rubab and the Kamanche featuring quite prominently.

Shujjat Hussain's album, Rain, which is a collaboration of Shujjat's strong Hindustani sensibilities with Iranian music played on the Kamanche. The recording that I heard was that of a live performance in Berlin, hence excellent sound quality. The Kamanche's sound is a rawer version of the Sarangi. It screeches in the higher pitch but its ability to impersonate the human vocal chords is amazing, just like the Sarangi's.

The north western music also surprisingly resonates with the rhythm style of Rajasthani and Marathi music. I was in Punjab when i discovered this surprising similarity in the music playing on the car deck of our correspondent in Punjab  with one of the popular Marathi folk tracks. Not just that, but during my travels in Rajasthan, I also came across Bhat music which was very similar to the Gondhal style in Maharashtra. The rhythm dominates the similarity found in the music of all three states. The only other common factor is that it also houses three powerful martial races of India and this could be a reason for the music having travelled during their excursions and campaigns into these territories. The book by Komal Kothari on the Bhat, Manganiyar and other folk musical communities of Rajasthan is a scholarly work which requires dedication to read through. He has actually travelled and mapped each and every family related to these communities across the princely state. I did get a first hand experience of some of the folk artistes in Rajasthan but i probably bumped into the wrong ones since they were nothing more than cheap imitations of some of the popular artists that we see on television.
Many a times I have thought of researching deeper into the reasons behind the similarities in the music of these states. I am going to start doing that on my frequent trips to these regions. I am sure there's already a lot of work which would have been done by academicians on this phenomenon but it would be good to develop my own perspective before I refer to existing ones.