Kirtan & Chanting

People sit on the floor in a loose half-circle facing the musicians. There may be a harmonium, tabla or another hand drum, and small cymbals; the audience often has shakers.

A chant starts slow and quiet. The leader sings, you repeat. Over many rounds it speeds up and gets louder, sometimes considerably, then drops back to silence. Some people close their eyes, some clap, some get up and dance, some just listen — all of it is normal.

Studio kirtans usually run an hour or ninety minutes. In temple settings they can go for two or three and end with a formal offering.

This one is genuinely old and well documented. Kirtan is Sanskrit for narrating or reciting, with roots in the Vedic anukirtana tradition of call-and-response recitation, and it developed as devotional practice within the Bhakti movement, where it is named as one of the nine forms of devotion.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu popularised Krishna kirtan in 16th-century Bengal; Shankaradeva established it in Assam in the same era. Sikh shabad kirtan is a parallel and equally real tradition.

It arrived in the US early: Paramahansa Yogananda led three thousand people in chant at Carnegie Hall in 1923. The 1960s brought a much larger wave, and the studio kirtan most people encounter today comes through performers like Krishna Das and Deva Premal.

You do not have to know the words. They are repeated enough that you will have them by the third round, and mumbling the first two is what everyone does.

If a venue is a temple rather than a studio, a quick look at their site for anything about shoes, seating or dress will save you wondering at the door.