Gauhar Jan
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Born to Anglo-Indian parents, her name was Miss Angelina Yeoward. Her father, William Robert Yeoward, was an Armenian Jew working as an engineer in a factory producing dry ice at Azamgadh near Benares. He married a Jewish lady, Miss Victoria Hemming, around 1870, who was born and raised in India and had learnt Indian dance and music. Angelina was born in 1873 and baptized in the Methodist church in Azamgadh. This marriage did not last long due to Victoria's love for dance and music and her relations with a Muslim friend named Khurshed. So after the divorce, she moved to Benares with Angelina and Khurshed, adopted Islam as her religion, and daughter and mother chose new names; Gauhar and Malka respectively. Around 1883, the trio moved to Calcutta. Little Gauhar was fond of dance and music and took her initial lessons from her mother. She had a sharp memory and intelligence and learned very quickly, and so Malka appointed special teachers to teach Gauhar languages, literature, dance, and music. Kale Khan of Patiala and Ustad Vazir Khan of Rampur trained her in pure and light classical Hindustani vocal music, whereas Ali Baksh and Brindadin Maharaj taught her the Kathak form of dance. Srijanbai taught her dhrupad damar and Charan Das trained her in Bengali Keertan. She also learnt from her contemporaries. She sang Tagore songs even before the word Rabindra-Sangeet had been coined. She penned several compositions under the pen-name Hamdam and she also wrote, composed, and recorded ghazals. She could read, write, speak, understand, and sing in several languages including Bengali, Hindustani, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, Arabic, Persian, Pushto, French, Peshawari, and English.
After such intensive training, she first performed at Darbhanga State at the age of fifteen in 1888, and from 1896, she began to perform in Calcutta. She was in great demand and every ordinary citizen wanted to listen to her music. Frederick William Gaisberg noticed this and made her music available to listeners through gramaphone records. Gauhar Jan recorded prolifically, a total of over 600 songs over the period from 1902 till 1920, and she sang in more than ten languages. From 1903, her records began to appear on the Indian market, and were always in great demand. Thousands of copies were imported after being pressed at Hanover, and they were best-sellers throughout India. In 1908, a record-pressing factory was built at Sealdah, Gaisberg was invited for this occasion, and recorded a few more songs of Gauhar Jan, for which the announcement of her name at the end was not required.
The early records of Gauhar Jan are labelled "First dancing girl, Calcutta". The word "first" indicates her elevated position as the premier vocalist in Calcutta music world of 1890-1910. She cut records of raagdari sangeet, thumri, dadra, kajri, chaiti, bajan, and tarana and she popularized various types of Kachha gana through her records. She mastered the technique of presenting a musical item in just three minutes, and this became a model for vocalists of the future. She recorded the music taught by her Ustads. One of her records was cut in 1907, performed at the Town Hall in Bombay, as mentioned on the record label. Through the wide circulation of her records, she became popular throughout India and received invitations to several prestigious musical conferences. Thus in 1911, she was invited to participate in the Prayag Sangeet Samiti, for which she was paid Rs. 1000. Later, the same year, during the coronation of King George V at the Dehli Darbar, she was invited to sing a duet with Jankibai of Allahabad. They performed a mujra, Yeh Hai Tajposhi Ka Jalsa, and received 100 guineas as a gift from the King.
Gauhar Jan travelled all over India, as a guest of patrons in the various princely states. She also gave public performances, in which she would present ticketed programs, distributing an advance schedule of the items to be sung in her concert. She was fond of horse-racing and hence would visit Bombay during the racing season. She used to stay with Anjanibai Malpekar, spending the day at the Mahalakshmi race course, and the evenings and nights at concerts. She was a great admirer of Heerabai and offered to adopt her when Abdul Karim Khan's family separated and his wife moved to Pune with her five children. She taught a number of bhajans and thumris to both Heerabai and Sunderabai. Gauhar Jan live a very wealthy life, and she also donated generously to a number of causes. Numerous legends are associated with her.
In Calcutta, she used to ride in a baggi driven by four horses, threw a party spending Rs. 20,000 when her cat produced a litter of kittens, and donated only half of the promised amount to Gandhiji's Swaraj fund when he did not keep the promise of attending the "fund-raising" concert and deputed a representative instead. In her personal life, she was deceived by her friends and relatives. She married her personal secretary, Saiyyad Gulam Abbas, a young man from Peshawar. She was ten years his senior, and when she discovered his relations with other women, she was bitterly disappointed in him, and this led to several court cases and unpleasant incidents. Later, she stayed with Mr. Amrut Vagal Nayak, a handsome actor of the Gujarati stage, in Bombay. This relation lasted for 3-4 years, and she learnt several songs composed by him. The sudden death of Amrut Nayak was a jolt that left her mentally disturbed. Relatives persuaded her to return to Calcutta. However, she did not stay there long. The machinations of selfish and cunning relatives forced her to stay in Darbhanga State for a while. Finally, she joined the service of the Mysore State, where she passed away in 1930. She has left over 150 records and most of them are in safe custody of record collectors.
