Echoes of Kashi

Aditya Dip plays pakhawaj, the barrel drum of Dhrupad, and Echoes of Kashi is his solo EP. It came out on 15 August 2026: three tracks, fifty-seven minutes, each carrying the name of its taal. Dr Indradeo Choudhary plays the lehra on harmonium, the repeating melody that marks the cycle under the drum. Kashi is the old name of Varanasi, where Aditya Dip was born in 1992. He studied with Pandit Shrikant Mishra (1952 to 2012), a Banaras pakhawaji who accompanied Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and Pandit Ramchatur Mallik.

Two of the three tracks are in Chautaal, the twelve-beat cycle of Dhrupad: six pairs of beats, the sam on the first beat and the khali on the third and seventh. Shrikant Mishra played that cycle under Dagar and Darbhanga singers. Aditya Dip plays it here with no singer in front of him. The opening track runs twenty-nine minutes. Jalad Chautaal, jalad meaning fast, runs thirteen and a half.

The closing track is Sadra, fourteen minutes in a ten-beat cycle. It shares its count with Jhaptaal and takes its name from the sadra, a vocal form that stands between Dhrupad and khayal. Aditya Dip works as accompanist and soloist. On stage he plays for Pandit Ritwik Sanyal and the Gundecha Brothers, and this EP records the solo side.