Linda Hess
Scholar, translator, and writer whose work on Kabir’s poetry, oral traditions, and performative worlds has helped generations encounter the songs with greater depth.
People & relationships
The work is
carried together.
Living Songs grows through artists, teachers, scholars, hosts, participants, families, and friends. The institution is a bridge, not the destination.
Artist and teacher
Prahlad Singh Tipaniya Ji
A leading voice of Kabir in the Malwa folk tradition, Tipaniya Ji brings singing and explanation together so that poetry remains inseparable from lived inquiry. His teaching, performance, and musical community are central to the relationships from which Living Songs has grown.
His work is presented in his own context and with full credit. Living Songs does not claim ownership of the tradition he carries.
Founder and coordinatorPriyal
Priyal
Maheshwari
A restrained profile
Priyal is a singer, translator, yoga and meditation teacher, and the founder coordinating Living Songs programs, relationships, and documentation.
His current work brings together performance, direct learning, English translation, university engagement, retreats, work with children, and contemplative practice. He has organized five Naad Brahma retreats with Prahlad Singh Tipaniya Ji and completed a 14-show solo U.S. tour in April 2026.
Earlier artist history—including travelling and performing on a 50-plus-show tour with Prahlad Singh Tipaniya Ji and troupe in 2024—is included as the relational and musical ground from which the present work developed. It is not presented as a Living Songs production.
The founder’s role is to create and protect space, support relationships, and keep the songs and their carriers at the center.
A wider circle
Teachers, artists, scholars, hosts
This acknowledgement will grow as names, roles, photographs, and permissions are confirmed. It is not a hierarchy or a claim of institutional affiliation.
Mukhtiyar Ali
Rajasthani folk and Sufi singer whose repertoire carries Kabir, Mirabai, Bulleh Shah, and other poets through a powerful living vocal tradition.
The wider community
Musicians, organizers, translators, institutions, families, participants, and quiet supporters who have created the conditions for the work to happen.
Media placeholders · people
Relationship before institution
Portraits will be captioned by person, role, relationship, place, and context—not used as anonymous atmosphere.
Priyal in the work
Reserved for a restrained image in performance, teaching, translation, or practice.
The wider circle
Reserved for collaborators and participants with verified names, roles, and permissions.
“Humility is allowing something greater to remain at the center.”Founder’s Handbook · Humility