Karnamrita Dasi

Karnamrita Dasi grew up inside an ashram community in the United States and has sung bhajans and kirtans since she was a child. She later went to Vrindavan to study Indian classical vocal performance formally, and is described as the first Western woman to be classically trained in India in this sacred art.

Her singing belongs to the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, where the name of Krishna is sung rather than spoken and the point of the singing is the relationship it opens.

Her best-known record, Dasi: Prayers by Women, gathers chants, bhajans and kirtans in Hindi and Sanskrit and is dedicated to her late mother, Kunti Devi.