The Diversity in Indian Devotional Music

Often, it takes an outsider’s perspective to truly perceive and appreciate something on your homeland. The other day, I chanced upon this Reaction video at random and I urge you all to watch it too (added at the end of the article). It was a video of Latinos reacting to Indian devotional music, and while watching it, I realised that while other countries also have their own devotional music genres (such as hymns / choirs, Sufi music etc.), the diversity we have in terms of devotional music seems to be unmatchable ! 
Now, I am not knowledgeable enough on the range of devotional music in other countries to comment on this, but I realised that I had not perceived or appreciated the range and depth of what we have here on our own soil.

From mantras (such as the Gayatri mantra) that are found in the Vedas & Upanishads, to stotras (e.g. Nirvana Shatakam, Shiva Tandava Stotram etc.) composed by great saints & philosophers such as Adi Shankaracharya, to stutis which are compositions in praise of deities, by great poets or composers such as Muthuswami Dikshitar (e.g. Vatapi Ganapatim) or Thyagaraja, to abhangs in praise of Lord Vitthal by saints such as Sant Tukaram and Sant Namdev, to folk compositions by saints such as the great Mirabai, to folk music sung during festivals such as Diwali or Holi which are both celebratory and in praise of God, bhajans & kirtans that get passed on from generation to generation, hymns such as the Hanuman Chalisa (and many more) by legendary poets / saints such as Tulsidas, to contemporary fusion devotional music that’s composed by artists such as Krishna Das or Maati Baani and finally, my most favourite : Indian classical music (both Hindustani & Carnatic) compositions & renditions! Legendary singers include Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Jasraj, M. S. Subbulakshmi and many, many more. Would also like to mention new singers in this genre such as Rahul Deshpande, Mahesh Kale and Nirali Kartik who are carrying these traditions & disciplines forward (and whose gurus are all legendary singers too!). The variety in the sub-genre we have in terms of devotional music is TRULY astounding!!
And I am sure I have only touched the surface and this is just in Hinduism. If we consider the Sikhism and Islamic genres such as Shabad Kirtan or Sufi music (e.g. Qawwali), we will cover much more.  

Someday, I will try to curate some (of my favourite) examples from each genre! 

Watch the video below, that inspired this post 🙂