NEW DELHI: On the 145th birth anniversary, search engine Google on Tuesday dedicated its latest doodle to honoured Gauhar Jaan, the India’ s first “recording star”.
Gauhar, a singer and dancer from Calcutta was actually born as Eileen Angelina Yeoward into a Christian family on June 26 in 1873 in UP’s Azamgarh.
Her father, William Robert Yeoward, an Armenian Christian worked as an engineer in a factory. Her mother, Allen Victoria Hemmings, an Indian by birth was trained in classical music and dance.
In 1879, her parents ended the marriage causing hardship to both Victoria and her daughter. The mother- daughter duo migrated to Banaras with a Muslim nobleman, ‘Khursheed’, who appreciate Victoria’s vocal talent.
Later, Victoria converted to Islam and changed her name to Malka Jaan and Angelina became Gauhar Jaan. There on, Gauhar remained a devout Muslim all her life.
At the age of 14, Gauhar gave her maiden performance at the royal courts of Darbhanga Raj in 1887 as a singer-cum-dancer.
A major milestone in the history of Indian music occurred in 1902 when “Gramophone Company” asked Gauhar to record a series of songs for them.
She was one of the first performers to record music on 78 rpm records in India.
“Gauhar Jaan was exceptional in more ways than one… she created a template to showcase something as expansive as Hindustani music in just three minutes!” said Vikram Sampath, who wrote her biography ‘My Name Is Gauhar Jaan! The Life and Times of A Musician.’
On August 1, 1928, she was appointed as ‘Palace Musician’ in the Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV’s court in Mysore and died within 18 months at the age of 60 on January 17, 1930.
In her lifetime, Gauhar recorded more than 600 records from 1902 to 1920 in over 10 languages and popularised Hindustani Classical with her bhajan, chaiti, dadra, thumri, kajri, Tarana.
Gauhar also composed ghazals under the pen-name of ‘Hamdam’.
The Google doodle was designed by Aditi Damle.