Pashto Music belongs to a unique country called Pashtoon. The people of this land are romantic and love music in its extremity. But these people do not like musicians. It appears very odd on this front, but there is enough justification to this fact.
The musicians in this nation belong to a lower caste in the society, who adopted music as a sole profession for making a livelihood whereas the Pashtoons are basically warrior people.
The very fact that musicians earn their living through the medium of music is against the Pashtoon character. The only profession that the Pashtoons like is that of agriculture and soldiery. They are very much aesthetic and have little patience for other professions.
Evolution of Pashto Music
The people of Pashtoon have very well promoted music directly or indirectly by giving huge money to musicians in a generous fashion for their valuable performance. The Pashto music has evolved to this day in this manner.
The Pashto music has a very rich heritage and traditions though one would not find it written in notations. Even so, some of the symphonies and notations have survived. Before the radio, the Mullahs used to oppose the Pashto Music, but Pashtoons would continue to carry on their musical ceremonies.
Pashtoons love to practice music in their hujras and also love to play the ‘Rabab’ or ‘Sitar’ that is performed with the beating of ‘Mangay’ or water pot as a drum. A Pashtoon would also love to sing folk songs, but would not do it as a profession.
Pashto music does have its own formulated terminology for teaching; even so professional Pashto musicians have been using the classical Indian musical terminology. There is a fusion of Indian terminology in Pashto music because of the interaction of both cultures.