Girish

A jazz drummer who became a Hindu monk, then a session tabla player on more than a hundred world music albums, and eventually a recording artist in his own right — Girish's path through music has been anything but direct, which may be why his work in mantra and chanting feels earned rather than adopted.

He spent five years living as a monk in a Hindu monastery, an experience that reoriented his relationship to sound entirely. When he returned to music, it was through the tabla — the North Indian hand drum that sits at the intersection of rhythm and devotion — and a long stretch of session work that gave him fluency across traditions before he turned to his own voice. Over the past twelve years he has written, recorded, and toured behind seven albums of original music rooted in Sanskrit mantra, drawing notice from O, The Oprah Magazine, Yoga Journal, and The Guardian. He also teaches Sanskrit mantras and chanting at music festivals and yoga studios internationally.

What distinguishes him in a crowded field is the breadth of the arc: most mantra musicians arrive from yoga culture and learn music; Girish arrived from music and learned the practice from the inside. Whether that produces something different is a question his listeners can answer for themselves — but the 23,000-plus Spotify followers suggest the work is finding its audience.