Focus: Music and Devotion in India creates a foundational framework for exploring musical expression in India, balancing coverage of a diverse range of traditions with in-depth analyses of specific genres and practices. It is based on the author's approach to teaching Indian music that begins with the fundamental connections between sound and religious experience in South Asia. The reader is first introduced to the culture, religions, and musics of India, before examining the music and devotion in India through the lens of specific religious identities. An accompanying website hosts field recordings.

Jaime Jones is Head of School and Lecturer of Ethnomusicology at University College Dublin in Ireland. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago. She is on the editorial board for Ethnomusicology Ireland, the Journal for the Society of Musicology in Ireland, and Musicology Review.

Part 1: Music and Religion in India

1. Contexts for Hearing: Religion and Indian Culture

2. Music in Devotion and Devotion in Music

Part 2: Performing Religious Identities

3. Music and Hindu Experience

4. Musical Expression in Indo-Islamic Traditions

5. Kirtan in Sikh, Christian, and Jewish Practice

Part 3: Focusing In: Music as Devotion in Western India

6. Everyday Devotion in the Varkari Tradition

7. Music and the Great Maharashtrian Pilgrimage

8. Re-sounding the Sacred: Varkari Drummers and Devotional Virtuosity