Kirtan is congregational. A leader sings a line; the gathering sings it back. The repetitions build — in tempo, in volume, in intensity — until the boundary between singer, song, and listener blurs.
The tradition crosses borders. Sikh kirtan draws from the guru-granth-sahib. Vaishnav kirtan, especially Chaitanya’s Hare Krishna lineage, is ecstatic to the point of spontaneous dance. Western practitioners of kirtan — Krishna Das, Deva Premal — have introduced the form to audiences well outside its origins.