On Diwali, during the puja, it is now not uncommon for families, often led by the children of the house, to tune into devotional music on YouTube.

Not that anyone is averse to the idea of learning and singing, but there is a growing preference for streaming them online.

Even when people gather for routine rituals and ceremonies, many now prefer an elaborate audio setup with the devotional songs being streamed online.

At an individual level, many choose to stream these songs in their homes or during their commute as part of their daily prayers. 

YouTube, gradually over the last few years, has emerged as the new online home for Hindu devotional songs.

As evident by the success T-Series has attained, hundreds of millions of Hindus stream these songs each day.

The success on YouTube and audio streaming websites like Gaana have encouraged many creators to turn to Instagram as well.

Reels, not more than ninety seconds, with devotional songs, now dominate Instagram. Influencers add their creativity, all very respectfully done, always, and encourage more creators in the process. 

Conservative in their thinking, some may choose to see this as a dilution of the Hindu culture.

Some may want to confuse or link the online virality and acceptance of these songs to a movie industry. They could not be more wrong.

While we must encourage the future generations to memorise the songs in the way the previous generations did, in an era when there was no internet, digital literature is now becoming an enabler for many to further study and explore Hinduism and the Hindu way of life. 

The numbers validate the success story. Shri Hanuman Chalisa, with over three billion views, is one of the most viewed videos on YouTube, globally. In India, it is perhaps the second most viewed video, after the childhood rhyme Lakdi Ki Kaathi with 3.3 billion views.

One of T-Series’ subsidiary channel, T-Series Bhakti Sagar, with more than 58 million subscribers, is ahead of Tips Industries, Sony Music, YashRaj Films, SonyMusicIndiaVEVO, and even Shemaroo; all channels home to India’s chartbusters. Globally, it is amongst the top-30 channels by subscriber count. 

Run by T-Series, the biggest channel on YouTube, with over 237 million subscribers, T-Series Bhakti Sagar, has over 25,000 videos and close to 28 billion views, a number that puts it in the top-50 channels globally in terms of viewership.

Other popular videos on the channel include Shree Hanuman Amritwani with over 517 million views, Man Mera Mandir Shiv Meri Puja with close to 400 million views, Sankat Mochan Hanuman Ashtak and Mahamrityunjay Mantra with 371 million views each, and the list goes on. 

Interestingly, most of these devotional songs with hundreds of millions of views, at least on the T-Series channel, have been recorded by the late Gulshan Kumar and one of the greatest singers of the 1990s, Anuradha Paudwal. They have been remixed for enhanced quality sound, as is the norm.

Further, most video descriptions contain streaming hyperlinks for Gaana, Wynk Music, Amazon Prime Music, Apple Music, Hungama, Spotify, Google Music, iTunes, and many such services. Put simply, an entire digital ecosystem of devotional music has been cultivated. 

Young independent creators and channels have also come up in the last few years, gaining more traction since the pandemic.

For instance, Maithili Thakur, a young musician, with over 4 million subscribers, has more than 80 videos of bhajans alone on her channel, categorised into a separate playlist with each video garnering a few million views.

Amit Trivedi, one of the best music directors in the Mumbai film industry today, under his independent label, routinely uploads devotional videos, each going viral. Again, the list is endless, be it YouTube or Instagram.

Hindu devotional songs have conquered the internet, and simultaneously, devotional music in regional languages will also find its audience.

More than 25,000 videos, on one channel alone, is much more literature than a big bookshelf may accommodate, and to have all of them accessible in the best audio and video quality for free, almost, is the icing on the cake.

While we squander away our energies, often, in wondering why mediocre filmy content from Mumbai gets all the media and audience traction, here’s a small success story that warrants our attention and cheer.