Shyama Sangeet (Bengali: শ্যামা সঙ্গীত ) is a genre of Bengali

devotional songs dedicated to the Hindu goddess Shyama or Kali which is a form of supreme universal mother-goddess Durga or parvati. It is also known as Shaktagiti or Durgastuti.

Shyama Sangeet appeals to the common man because it is a musical representation of the relationship of eternal and sublime love and care between the mother and her child.

During the 12th-13th centuries when Shaktism grew

in Bengal, it inspired a number of poets to compose poems on Kali. Mukundarāma, known as Kavikaṅkaṇ or 'gem of poets', wrote his chief poem, the epic Chaṇḍī, in 1589. Towards the middle of the 18th century, the poet Ramprasad Sen instilled new life into it and turned it into a distinct genre of Bengali songs. There has been a Bengali movie on Ramprasad Sen.

It is said that, Ramprasad was born into a Tantric family, and showed an inclination towards poetry from an early age. He became a disciple of Krishnananda Agamavagisha, a Tantric scholar and yogi. Ramprasad became well known for his devotional songs, eventually becoming the court poet for the king Krishna Chandra of Nadia.

"Man re –krishi kaaj janona
Emon manab-jamin railo pateet

Abad karle pholto sona!"

(Mind mine – would that you knew to farm Such human-acreage lay fallow Tilled, would yield gold!)

Ramprasad was succeeded by number of composers like Kamlakanta Bhattacharya (1772–

1821), Rasikchandra Ray (1820–1893), Ramchandra Datta (1861–1899), and Nilakantha Mukhopadhyaya. In modern times both Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam have composed poems of Shyama Sangeet genre.

Nazrul Islam, the rebel bulbul, was a Muslim Kali-bhakta in the syncretic Indian sense, and his words hark back to the first fiery Kali lyricist Ramprasad Sen:

Amar kalo meyer payer talai, dekhe ja alor nachan

Roop dekhe dai book pete Shib, jar hate maran bnachan. . .
Kalo meyer andhar kole, shishu rabi-shashi dole
Mayer ektukhani rooper jhalak, snighdha biraat neel gagan ...
Vishwe Ma-yer roop dharena, Ma amar tai digbasan. .

(http://grandpoohbah.blogspot.in/2006/10/shyama-sangeet.html)

Shyama Sangeet conceptualizes Goddess Kali as a loving human mother and the singer is longing for The Mother’s love. The songs have become popular not only for its devotional side, but also for its human appeal.

Shayama sangeet become more popular at the time of Sri Ramkrishna Paramahansa, who was an ardent Kali bhakta/devotee, and many of his songs are recorded in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Ramprasad Sen, Rabindranath Tagore, Girishchandra Ghosh,

and Swami Vivekananda, among others, composed numerous Shyama Sangeet. India's national song, 'Vande Maataram' (Hail to the Mother), whose lyrics were written by Bankimchandra Chatterjee and whose music was composed by Tagore, is first and foremost a hymn to Ma Durga which hails the Indian motherland, "Bharat Mata", as being a form of the supreme goddess Durga.