Kanta dha kanta dha kanta dha
Posted on: May 5, 2026
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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I am presenting a song mixed with taraana and sargam, ‘kanta dha kanta dha kanta dha’ from ‘Sangeet Samrat Tansen’ (1962). It is a jugalbandi between Tansen (Bharat Bhushan) as singer and the dancer Naaz Parveen (Sabita Chatterjee) in the court of Raja (D K Sapru) of Rewa Kingdom.
The story of the film is majorly concentrated around Tansen and his childhood friend, Hansa (Anita Guha). Tansen is devoted to Hansa as well as to his music. So, he is always caught in a dilemma. As a result, most of the time, Hansa gets separated from Tansen because of the calls from his musical duties. In a way, their relationship is akin to that of Radha and Shyam.
When Tansen decides to get married to Hansa for the first time, his Guru, Mohammed Ghous (David) instructs him to join the royal court on an invitation from Raja of Rewa. After a few months, when he gets permission from Raja of Rewa to get married to Hansa, Shahenshah Akbar (S N Tripathi) orders Raja of Rewa to send Tansen to be one of his ‘navratnas’ in his court. Even though Raja of Rewa decides to reject the demand inviting the potential wrath from Akbar, Tansen decides to reluctantly accept the invitation as rejecting that would create problems for Raja of Rewa. After joining the court of Akbar, Hansa joins Tansen and Akbar has planned for their marriage in Delhi. However, a misunderstanding between Hansa and Tansen about his relationship with dancer Naaz Parveen who is, in reality Tansen’s disciple, forces her to leave Tansen and return to the ashram of Swami Haridas. They are united only after Tansen faints while singing Raag Deepak which revives Akbar’s daughter (Preeti Bala). It is dancer, Naaz Parveen who clears Hansa’s misunderstanding about her and requests her to be with Tansen who is slated to sing Raag Deepak. After hearing this, Hansa accompanies Naaz Parveen and rushes to Delhi. Seeing an unconscious Tansen, she sings Raag Megh Malhar and revives him.
The context of the song under discussion is that Tansen wants to get married to his childhood friend, Hansa after his musical training gets over both from his Guru, Mohammed Ghous and Swami Haridas (M Kumar). Tansen pays a visit to his Guru, Mohammed Ghous to take his permission to marry Hansa. However, his Guru reveals that Raja Ramchandra of Rewa Kingdom has invited him to be the court singer. Adhering to his Guru’s instructions, Tansen joins the court of Raja of Rewa where he gets the title of ‘Sangeet Shiromani Tansen’. On this occasion, Naaz Parveen, the Raj Nartaki (Royal Dancer) from the court of the kingdom of Orchha gives a dance performance on the taraana rendered by Tansen. Later, it turns out to be a jugalbandi between the dancer and the singer.
The dance starts with a taraana of rhythmic syllables after which it gets switched over to a duet song between the singer and the dancer. Towards the end, once again, the singer switches over to taraana with faster rhythmic syllables which the dancer is not able to match and she loses her balance. Later, she becomes Tansen’s disciple.
In some places, I have not been able to decipher the rhythmic syllables in which cases I have only indicated them as ‘rhythmic syllables’.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Kanta dha kanta dha (Sangeet Samrat Tansen)(1962) Singer-Manna Dey, Unknown female voice, Lyricist-Shailendra, MD-S N Tripathi
Lyrics (Based on Video Clip):
kanta dha
kanta dha
kanta dha..aa
kanta dha
kanta dha
kanta dha
ta na na na
tir ta na ra tir kit dum
ta na na na
tir ta na ra tir kit dum
ta na na na
ta na na na
tanum
tanum
tanum
ta na tir kit
kanta dha
kanta dha
kanta dha
ta na na na
tir ta na ra tir kit dum
ta na na na
tir ta na ra tir kit dum
ta na na na
ta na na na
tanum
tanum
tanum
ta na tir kit
kanta dha
kanta dha
kanta dha
sa ni ma pa dha
pa dha
re sa
sa ni dha
sa sa ma
sa pa ni dha ma
ta na na na
tir ta na ra tir kit dum
ta na na na
tir ta na ra tir kit dum
ta na na na
tir kit dum
tanum
tanum
tanum
kanta dha
kanta dha
kanta dha
kanta dha
[Rhythmic Syllables]
thrik thrik thrik thrik chhum sanan sanan chaayee ghata
thrik thrik thrik thrik chhum sanan sanan chaayee ghata
dhinak dhinak rumjhum bundan barsaayee ghata
dhinak dhinak rumjhum bundan barsaayee ghata
sagan kunj aali gunj sang aali kunj manohar
sagan kunj aali gunj sang aali kunj manohar
madmaati muskaati itlaati rasraati
madmaati muskaati itlaati rasraati
manjul mrid saawak maral
sukapit kapot ke hari lajaati
manjul mrid saawak maral
sukapit kapot ke hari lajaati
ang vasan mrid hasan dasan daamini sihaansini
ang vasan mrid hasan dasan daamini sinhaansini
sab nupur jhankaar chaar
chamak chamak
kantey
kantey
kantey
kanta dha
kanta dha
dha ma ga pa
ni dha ni pa ni dha
ni pa ma ga
ma sa ni dha ni pa
ma ga pa ma s ani sa
sa ga ma pa da ni
sa ga ma pa da ni sa
sa ga ma pa da ni sa
sa ga ma pa da ni sa…aa
[Faster rhythmic syllables]
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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