Chilla katna

In Hindustani classical music, chilla or chilla katna is a stage of training or ritual where the student is fully isolated from the outside world and lives for music only. Some musicians spend long periods of their training in varying degrees of isolation and describe these as their chilla; for others, it's a shorter, more extreme retreat, traditionally lasting 40 days. In either form, it is thought to have the power of transforming not only the student's music, but his whole life. Chilla is widely used in the Punjab gharānā (school) of tabla playing.

Abdul Karim Khan, a singer of the Kirana Gharana, described chilla as "lighting a fire under your life. You either cook or you burn. If you cook, everyone can enjoy your flavour – otherwise, you'll be a mass of cinders, a heap of ash."

"Forego your sense of self if you want to achieve greatness. It’s only when a seed is thrown in the soil, does it blossom into a flower of a lush garden". This was the famous Ghalib couplet, late Sitar maestro Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan often quoted, to sum-up the intensely grueling process of becoming a successful Hindustani musician.

The word Chilla can also refer to the forty days after childbirth during which the mother is said to be "unclean", or quarantined, or more generally a period of religious fasting and worship.

Well known musicians who have documented their Chilla experience include Ravi Shankar and Zakir Hussein