The Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology at the American Institute of Indian Studies will digitize a collection of audio cassettes that document the music and oral traditions of Western Rajasthan from 1980 to 2003. The audio recordings in the collection include ballads, oral epics and storytelling of hereditary musician castes in the region. These hereditary musicians belong to some of the most marginalized communities with traditions that are quickly disappearing. The collection represents the research carried out by the late Komal Kothari of the Rupayan Sansthan, whose pioneering work put the music of Western Rajasthan, especially that of the Langa and Manganiar communities, on the world music map.
