Kaajee Singh

Kaajee Singh “Vidyaarthee” was a musician who devoted his life to the madal, the hand drum at the heart of Gorkha folk music. He founded the Samskriti Samrakshan Samsthaan in Kalimpong to preserve folk music alongside Indian classical music. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2022 in the field of art, from West Bengal ^[1].

A family of drummers

Singh was born on 25 July 1945, the son of the madal master Indrajeet Singh Sardaar and Mohanphui Singh, into a family that had kept the tradition for three generations ^[2]. He began with the maaruni folk dance in 1952, then turned to singing madal songs and playing the drum, which he learned from his father ^[2]. For ten years he worked in Mumbai as a film musician on the madal, with composers such as Laxmikant–Pyarelal, Kalyanji–Anandji and Shankar–Jaikishan ^[2]. He later taught music at Tashi Namgyal Academy in Gangtok ^[2].

Writing down the madal

In 1967 he began researching the instrument, and after eight years of fieldwork published his first book, Maadal, in April 1974 ^[2]. He was the first to create a notation system for the madal and its folk songs, giving the music a written form ^[2]. He wrote six books on the madal and Indian classical music, created new metres and taals, among them a 14-beat taal he named Deodeep, and composed new ragas ^[2].

He was honoured by the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre in 1995 and 1997 ^[2]. Singh died in Kalimpong in January 2025 ^[3].