Gauhar Jaan

Singer, stage artiste and actress, Gauhar Jaan was one of the most renowned and charismatic performing artistes of her time. She was also cast in several of Madan Theatres’ silent productions such as Bilwamangal (1919) and Shakuntala (1920). Acknowledged as the first superstar performer in the country, she is hailed as “the greatest woman singer of thumri and khayal”. Renowned as much for her flamboyance as her music, she has the honour of being the first Indian artiste whose voice was recorded by the Gramophone Company. At the turn of the 20th century, between 1902 and 1920, the legendary Indian singer and dancer recorded over 600 songs in several languages. She is credited with popularising Hindustani classical music such as thumri, dadra, kajri, and tarana during the period. Some of her most famous songs include Mora nahak laye gavanava, Jabse gaye mori sur huna, and Ras ke bhare tore nain mere dard-e-jigar, as well as bhajans like Radhey Krishna bol mukhse. Her mastery of style, flawless technique of rendering songs and display of rhythmic hand and feet movements, coupled with the usage of facial expression and gesticulations to express the emotions of the song, ensured she shone above all other leading singers and dancers of her time. A woman of exceptional beauty, talent and grace, she earned fame and fortune far beyond the reach of any other artiste of her day. She was known to finish each of her music recordings with the announcement, “My name is Gauhar Jaan.”

She was born Eileen Angelina Yeoward in Azamgarh, in the erstwhile United Provinces, in 1873. Her mother, Adeline Victoria Hemming, was the daughter of Hardy Hemmings, a British soldier, and a local Hindu woman named Rukmini in Allahabad. Her father, William Robert Yeoward, was an employee of a Calcutta firm. Her background was a blend of various religions and cultures, with her grandmother being Hindu, her grandfather British and her father Armenian Christian. She would later embrace Islam and remain a devout Muslim all her life. Most of her compositions would be replete with Krishna bhakti; she would indeed symbolise the secular ethos that Indian classical music is known for. 

When she was six, her parents had an acrimonious divorce. In 1881, Angelina and her mother Victoria moved to Benaras with a Muslim nobleman, where they converted to Islam. Mother and daughter adopted the names Malka Jaan and Gauhar Jaan, respectively. Victoria aka Malka Jaan developed into an accomplished singer, Kathak dancer and tawaif. Gaining in popularity, she came to be known as Badi Malka Jan, as she was the eldest of the other similarly named tawaifs who had made a name for themselves at the time, namely Malka Jaan of Agra, Malka Jaan of Mulk Pukhraj and Malka Jaan the Chulbuli. The culturally vibrant atmosphere of Benaras saw young Gauhar’s innate talents in music, dance and poetry bloom.

Moving back to Calcutta in 1883, Malka Jaan established herself in the courts of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, who had settled at Metiaburj (Garden Reach), near Calcutta. Within three years, she purchased a building at 24 Chitpore Road (now Rabindra Sarani), which is where Gauhar began her training. She would learn pure and light classical Hindustani vocal music from Kale Khan of Patiala, 'Kalu Ustad', and Ustad Ali Baksh Jarnail (founding members of the Patiala gharana) and Kathak from the legendary Brindadin Maharaj (granduncle of Birju Maharaj), Dhrupad dhamar from Srijanbai, and Bengali Keertan from Charan Das. Composing ghazals under the pen-name 'Hamdam', she also became proficient in Rabindra Sangeet. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she also became a poetess, composing under the pseudonym Gohur.

Gauhar’s maiden performance conducted in 1887 at the royal courts of Darbhanga Raj, before the Maharaja—himself a good artiste—was highly acclaimed. Her intelligence and cultivated mind, along with her ‘pretty face, lustrous eyes, graceful figure of medium height, long black hair, magnetic charm and rich melodious voice’ all contributed to her immense success as a performing artiste. She and her mother were counted among the most famous baijis of Calcutta.

It is not surprising that in 1902, Gauhar became the first Indian artiste to be recorded, invited by Frederick William Gaisberg, the Gramophone Company of Calcutta’s first India agent. Gaisberg would give an interesting account of Gauhar Jaan, commenting, “She was an Armenian-Jewess who could sing in 20 languages and dialects. Her fee was Rs300 per evening and she used to make a brave show when she drove at sundown on the Maidan in a fine carriage. Hers were among the 600 records which proved a firm foundation for our new enterprise.... every time she came to record, she amazed us by appearing in a new gown, each one more elaborate than the last. She never wore the same jewels twice. Strikingly effective were her delicate black gauze draperies embroidered with real gold lace, arranged so as to present a tempting view of a bare leg and a naked navel. She was always bien soignee.”

On a deeper level, Gauhar Jaan symbolises the receptiveness of India’s female artistes to the new and unfamiliar medium of recording, embracing the technology that came to India in the early decades of the 20th century. By disregarding the many superstitions spread, ironically, by men, and by going ahead and recording on “evil English instruments”, music was hugely democratised and brought out of the confines of the kothas (brothels) and courts. The performing women were also, to a large extent, liberated from the hold of exploitative patrons. 

Gauhar Jaan is credited with creating a novel template of presenting Hindustani music in a mere three minutes; the recording capacity of a single disc at the time. She would usually sign off at the end of a recording with a high-pitched and occasionally flirtatious line: “My name is Gauhar Jaan!". These announcements were a technical necessity as they enabled the technicians in Hanover, Germany, where the record masters were sent, to identify the singer. Interestingly, her announcement at the end of her 78 rpm records also served as an effective self-advertisement, playing a considerable part in the unprecedented success she was to achieve. 

Carving an immensely illustrious career, Gauhar Jaan would record nearly 600 records in over 10 languages. Her vast repertoire ranged from the more substantial khayal and dhrupad to the lighter thumri, dadra, kajri, hori, chaiti and bhajan. She sang in more than ten languages, including Bengali, Hindustani, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, Arabic, Persian, Pashto, French, and English.

Such was her fame that Gauhar Jaan, along with her contemporary Janki Bai, were given the rare privilege of presenting a song specially composed for the occasion at the famous Delhi Durbar of 1911, when Emperor George V was crowned the paramount power of British India in the presence of Indian princes and aristocrats. Gauhar Jaan and Janki Bai performed the song Yeh jalsa taajposhi ka mubarak ho mubarak ho at the glittering ceremony, witnessed by the emperor and his queen and all of India’s royalty. Post the concert, they were escorted to the emperor, who praised their talent profusely, and also showed his appreciation by presenting them with a hundred guineas.

Dominating the Calcutta entertainment scene for decades, Gauhar dazzled with her performances. A Lucknow writer, who had witnessed her performance in 1896, wrote, “I witnessed her skill in batana (depiction through bodily movements in dance) on the same theme for a full three hours. All those present at the gathering, including the most expert dancers and distinguished people were spellbound. There was not even a child who was not impressed by the performance.” Similarly, commenting on her performance in Bangalore in 1912, H P Krishna Rao, editor of Indian Music Journal noted: “She possesses a sweet voice which when prolonged seems uniformly grand, more so, as it is produced without any strain. The notes are faultless and simple. The gradual transition from one note to another and the wave-like ascent and descent which produces in the mind of the listener the kind of agreeable illusion which one experiences when rocked in a cradle, are special points of beauty in her singing: Everything is precise and accurate.”

As an actress, she starred in J F Madan’s Bilwa Mangal in 1919, made under his earlier banner, Elphinstone Bioscope, which was the precursor to Madan Theatres. The film, also known as Bhagat Soordas, was directed by Rustomji Dotiwala, and featured Gauhar Jan as the character Chintamani opposite Dorabji Mewawala, who essayed Bilwamangal. She also featured in the 1920 film Shakuntala, based on Kalidas’ Sanskrit drama, among others.

Gauhar Jaan equally made waves with her vivacious nature and flashy lifestyle. For instance, she hosted a grand party that cost Rs 20,000 when her cat birthed a litter of kittens. Flouting the government regulations of the day in Calcutta, she would travel in a four-horse-driven buggy, paying the required fine of Rs 1,000 a day to the viceroy.

Fame and adulation didn’t stop her yearning for true love. Following a series of short-lived and unsuccessful romantic escapades, including the one with popular Gujarati theatre actor Amrit Keshav Nayak, she embarked on a relationship with her secretary Abbas. This too ended in bitterness, with the much-younger Abbas embezzling her money. Despite winning the case, she was left nearly penniless after clearing the fees of her reputed lawyers.

In her final days, a much-diminished Gauhar Jaan moved to Mysore, at the invitation of Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV of Mysore, to be instated as a state guest and court musician in 1928. She passed away within 18 months, on 17 January 1930 in Mysore. She died alone and forlorn, aged 56.

As Vikram Sampath, author of My Name is Gauhar Jaan! The Life and Times of a Musician writes, “In her lifetime, Gauhar attained a celebrity status that few women of her era could even dream of. For someone whose photograph appeared on picture postcards and matchboxes during her time, sadly today Gauhar is almost forgotten and largely unacknowledged even by the world of Hindustani music. This is what made researching her life for her biography an immensely challenging, yet enjoyable task. In a culture where the art is always perceived to be bigger than the artiste, and where documenting their personal lives is seldom considered important, it was quite an exercise to exhume this marvellous artiste from her grave and place her in a historical perspective, bringing her memory and contributions to Hindustani music in the public discourse.”

In June 2018, Google commemorated Gauhar Jaan with a Doodle on her 145th birth anniversary. It was accompanied by the caption: “Gauhar Jaan, who emerged on the scene at the turn of the 20th century, gained popularity through her singing and dancing, and would go on to define the future of Indian performance art.”