Music
In India today, 'Pandit' is an honour conferred on an expert of any subject or field, especially Hindustani music. Its usage is confined to Hindu male exponents. Muslim male musicians are bestowed with the title 'Ustad', and the terms 'Vidushi' and 'Begum' are used for Hindu and Muslim female exponents respectively.
The term 'Pandit' (always capitalised) is prefixed to the person's name, similarly to the way the term 'Maestro' is occasionally used. Examples include Pandit Ravi Shankar and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.
This usage also applies to politician Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
Read more about this topic: Pandit
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“The dignity of art probably appears most eminently with music since it does not have any material that needs to be discounted. Music is all form and content and elevates and ennobles everything that it expresses.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“Franceska: I was happy in the life I built up for myself. I put a fine high wall of music around me and nothing could touch me. I was safe and secure. And then you had to come along and knock it all down and I hate you for that.
Maxwell: On the contrary, you love me.”
—Muriel Box (b. 1905)
“We live in the mind, in ideas, in fragments. We no longer drink in the wild outer music of the streets—we remember only.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)