Rupayan Sansthan

To document, research, preserve and promote the folk traditions, oral literature, music and cultural practices of Rajasthan, with particular attention to the hereditary musician communities whose traditions are at risk of being lost.

Folk music documentation and research institution in Jodhpur, founded by folklorist Komal Kothari in 1960. Holds the most significant archive of Rajasthani folk music documentation; responsible for the international recognition of the Manganiyar and Langa musician communities.

Rupayan Sansthan was established in 1960 by two close friends: Komal Kothari, a folklorist from Rajasthan who would spend his life documenting its traditions, and Vijaydan Detha, a writer who would become one of the most celebrated authors in Rajasthani literature. The institution's founding was driven by Kothari's recognition that Rajasthan's extraordinary wealth of folk music, oral poetry and performing traditions was rapidly disappearing as the patronage systems that had sustained them collapsed. The institution began systematic field recording of traditional musicians across Rajasthan, accumulating what became one of the largest archives of Rajasthani folk music documentation in existence. Kothari's most significant specific contribution was his sustained engagement with the Manganiyar and Langa hereditary musician communities of western Rajasthan. He documented their repertoires, brought them to urban Indian and international audiences, facilitated their first international tours and advocated for their cultural recognition at a time when they were invisible outside their own communities. His efforts were recognised with the Padma Bhushan in 2004. Rupayan Sansthan continues to operate as a documentation and research institution, maintaining Kothari's archive and continuing research into Rajasthani folk traditions. The Arna-Jharna Desert Museum established adjacent to the institution's campus is a community museum for the folk traditions and material culture of the region.