Musicians and storytellers

Mirasi is a term used for communities whose historical work in parts of Punjab and northern South Asia included musical performance, storytelling and genealogical knowledge. A study of Punjabi ancestry describes oral transmission and relationships between genealogists and the families whose histories they remembered. Such work could connect a performance with a family’s account of its past. These roles varied across people, places and periods: the term does not mean that every person identified as Mirasi is a performer or genealogist. Researchers should ask how individuals and communities describe themselves rather than assume one fixed identity. The research connects genealogy with relationships among people, families and places. The authors examine genealogy as knowledge carried and shared through relationships.[1]

Music in colonial Punjab

Radha Kapuria’s Music in Colonial Punjab examines performers including Mirasi bards, alongside other musicians and dancers, between 1800 and 1947. Its publisher describes a study of musical institutions, colonial administrators and social reform as well as performance. Her book studies how musicians navigated changes in patronage and performance during the colonial era. Texts written by officials, reformers or outsiders must be read in relation to their authors and purposes. Performers’ own accounts and recordings can offer different evidence.[2]

Names and changing musical worlds

Loren Lybarger’s research on hereditary musicians in Pakistani Punjab reports that musicians did not always agree on the categories and terminology used for their work. An ethnographic study of Lahore’s classical-music gatherings likewise discusses changing relationships between hereditary and non-hereditary practitioners. Neither account means that a musical style belongs exclusively to one group or that the same social relationships exist everywhere. Oral performance, training and patronage change over time. Listening to named artists and attending to their own descriptions helps preserve their knowledge without turning a living, diverse set of practices into a stereotype.[3][4]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Debbie Bargallie and Awais Hussain; Cultural Studies 40(6). They remember us: reclaiming Punjabi ancestry through Mirasi genealogical storywork ↗scholarly research article · Source date: 2026-01-18 · Locator: Abstract and Mirasi as method: genealogical practice and relationships. Accessed 2026-11-04.Publisher-indexed abstract and selected text were rechecked; the researchers’ underlying interviews were not independently examined.Return to Musicians and storytellers, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Radha Kapuria; Oxford University Press. Music in Colonial Punjab: Courtesans, Bards, and Connoisseurs, 1800–1947 ↗scholarly book, publisher description · Source date: 2023-05-15 · Locator: Publisher overview and bibliographic record. Accessed 2026-11-04.Publisher overview and metadata rechecked. This use describes the book’s scope; the complete book was not newly inspected.Return to Music in colonial Punjab, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Lowell H. Lybarger. Hereditary Musician Groups of Pakistani Punjab ↗scholarly ethnomusicology article · Source date: 2011 · Locator: Journal of Punjab Studies 18(1–2), printed pp. 97 and 115: terminology, field research and differing group names. Accessed 2026-11-04.Opening discussion and the comparison of terminology were rechecked in the journal PDF. The author’s field recordings and interviews were not independently examined.Return to Names and changing musical worlds, paragraph 1 ↑
  4. G. Ali Shair; HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 15(1). Spatializing culture: Baithaks and the surviving classical music scene in Pakistan ↗ethnographic research article · Source date: 2025-04-25 · Locator: Section on baithak and musical change, discussion of hereditary and non-hereditary practitioners. Accessed 2026-11-04.Publisher article text inspected; the author’s underlying fieldwork and interview recordings were not independently examined.Return to Names and changing musical worlds, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-COM-0071 · English edition · human review not performed