Atul Purohit
Atul Purohit | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Atul Purohit |
| Born | February 27, 1955 Dholar, near Dabhoi, Gujarat, India |
| Origin | Vadodara, Gujarat, India |
| Genres | Garba, Sugam sangeet, bhajan, Ghazal, Hindustani classical, Sufi |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Instruments | Vocals, harmonium |
| Years active | 1970s–present |
| Associated acts | Rishabh, The Rutambhara Group |
Atul Purohit (born 27 February 1955), also known as Atul Dada, is an Indian Gujarati folk singer, best known for garba music. He also sings bhajans, ghazals and devotional songs, including Sunderkand recitals. His songs include "Tara Vina Shyam", "Vhalam Ni Vaat Kai", "Jamuna Ne Kanthe", "Ke Hove Hove" and "Tahuka Karto Jaay".
Early life
Purohit was born into a middle-class family in the village of Dholar near Dabhoi in Gujarat. His father was a farmer and priest (pujari) and his mother a homemaker. Bhajans and folk songs were sung regularly at home, and he received his first harmonium at the age of ten and taught himself to play. He graduated in arts, with dramatics as his major subject, from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 1975. He began by performing in the streets of Baroda with like-minded musicians, then explored sugam sangeet and devotional music, trained under several ustads and took up stage performance.
Career
Concerned that many garba performances had come to rely on popular Bollywood songs, Purohit set out to preserve traditional garba and Gujarati folk music. In 1983 he founded the group Rishabh with five friends, and in 1992 he founded a second group, The Rutambhara Group. His album Tara Vina Shyam made him widely known as a garba singer, and he has been called the "World's Best Garba Singer".[1]
He has long been associated with the annual United Way of Baroda garba festival in Vadodara, which draws tens of thousands of participants each Navratri, and with his group The Rutambhara Group performing there.[1] He performs for the Gujarati diaspora in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom, and led the Indian Cultural Association's garba event in Sydney.[1]
In October 2026 he provided the music for the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Garba, organised by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation and United Way of Baroda at M M Patel Farm, which set a Guinness World Record for the largest garba dance with 46,128 performers.[2]
Awards
- Gujarat Gaurav Puraskar (Gujarat Government), 2014–15, for his efforts to preserve traditional garba.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Singh, Astha (25 August 2016). "The Garba groove". Indian Link.
- ↑ "More than 46,000 dancers celebrate the Indian tradition of garba". Guinness World Records. 16 October 2026.
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