Kesariya Balam | Dayam Khan | Nathoo Lal Solanki | Mast Qalandars

Kesariya Balam | Dayam Khan | Nathoo Lal Solanki | Nagada | Manganiyar Folk | The Peninsula Studios There is a song in Rajasthan that everyone knows and nobody owns. It passes from voice to voice the way water moves through desert sand — silently, completely, leaving everything changed. Kesariya Balam is that song. It is what Rajasthan sings when someone it loves comes home. Dayam Khan comes from Barmer, a town at the far western edge of the Thar Desert where the land flattens into Pakistan and the sky takes over. The Manganiyar community has been the musical memory of Rajasthan for centuries — hereditary musicians who performed for kings and kept singing when the kings disappeared. Kesariya Balam is one of the songs they refused to let die. The Peninsula Studios found Dayam Khan in 2010 during a 2000 kilometre journey across Rajasthan. He was sitting quietly with his harmonium, humming to himself. He came to New Delhi on 15th August 2011, Independence Day, and asked to sing this song. Not a question. A statement. Beside him on the Nagara sits Nathoo Lal Solanki, a thirteenth-generation percussionist of the Pushkar Sangeet Gharana who has since carried this same rhythm onto international stages with Susheela Raman and Sam Mills, most recently at the 2025 Jaipur Music Stage. Music Changes Lives. And good music is good music. Watch Next —    • Chaap Tilak | Kutle Khan | Nathoo Lal Sola...   Related Playlist — Mast Qalandars | The Peninsula Studios |    • Mast Qalandars   https://www.thepeninsulastudios.com/ Curated by Subroto Chattopadhyay and Sita Raina. Nathoo Lal Solanki of the Pushkar Sangeet Gharana plays Nagara throughout, recorded years before his international touring career with Susheela Raman and Sam Mills. This recording was led by Avinash Chordia, Head of Studio, and Neel Adhikari, Music Director, who mentored seventeen musicians over three months in the summer of 2011 with Nitin Kurup and Deepak Samson. Narinder Tawakley provided logistics support and Shankar was the studio technician. Ananya Rane, Head of Films, worked with Director Salman Usmani and editor Ravi to bring this performance to screen. Produced by The Peninsula Studios. Copyright © The Peninsula Publications and Studio Private Limited, New Delhi. All Rights Reserved. Produced by The Peninsula Studios and recorded live before invited audiences at The Peninsula Studios, New Delhi, India. The Peninsula Studios is a National Award winning content house and one of India's foremost music archives. Since 2009 we have documented more than 2000 artists across the Indian subcontinent. #KesariyaBalam #DayamKhan #MastQalandars #ManganiyarMusic #ThePeninsulaStudios