A contemporary of the legendary Gauhar Jan, prima donna of early recordings of Indian music, Indubala (more famously known as Miss
Indubala) was the daughter of Rajbala, a circus trapeze artiste.
Rajbala married Motilal Bose, owner of The Great Bengal Circus, also
known as Bose’s Circus or Professor Bose’s Circus. The marriage was not
really accepted by Motilal’s family as he was already married to another
woman. Indubala was born in November, 1899 at Amritsar, where the
circus party had gone for performance.
The initial plan was to train
Indubala as a nurse and she was admitted as a trainee in a hospital in
the Pataldanga locality of Calcutta. Indubala did not take fancy to the
job and ran away from the hospital, much to the disappointment of her
mother, who never wanted her only daughter to be forced into a life of
indignity. After this incident Indubala’s musical training started. This
also marked the entry of Indubala into the red light world. Amongst her
trainers was Gauhar Jan. Apart from music, Indubala also learned
etiquette from the elder artiste and developed a close friendship with
her. This association provided Indubala with valuable musical knowledge
and experience.
Zohra Bai (1868-1913) of the Agra Gharana, or Zohra Bai Agrewali as she came to be known as, was easily the best female singer at the turn of the 19th century. Along with Gauhar Jan, she marks the dying phase of the courtesan singing tradition in Indian classical music. She had her talim from Ustad Sher Khan, Ustad Kallan Khan and Mehboob Khan, the great composers of Khayals and .
Thumris
Known equally for Khayal as well as lighter varieties of classical music, she learnt Thumri and Ghazals
from Ahmad Khan of Dacca. Her many records going back to the first 15
years of the last century have not yet been dated, unlike records of
some of her contemporaries. It is said that Faiyaz Khan, the greatest
Ustad of the Agra Gharana, was influenced by Zohra Bai’s style of singing. The famed Bade Ghulam Ali Khan of the Patiala Kasur Gharana also held her in very high esteem. Zohra Bai Agrewali – Basant – Tore Jele Jele Ede Ede :
November 14,1902 : A very rudimentary and makeshift
recording studio had been set up in two large rooms of a hotel in
Calcutta by the Gramophone Company. Frederick William Gaisberg and his
assistants had arrived just three weeks before from England on their
first Far East recording expedition for the Gramophone Company, which
had been founded in England in 1898. They had appointed a local agent
for selecting and training artists for recording on gramophone discs.
However, the agent selected Anglo-Indian artists and completely ignored
local talent. Gaisberg then sought the help of the local Police
Superintendent, visited several theaters, attended mehfils at wealthy Jamindars’
palaces, and thus found at least one promising artist to begin with.
The artist was a very famous dancing girl, and her voice was very sweet,
although not for European ears. She agreed to a recording session for
the handsome fee of 3,000 rupees. Such an artist was necessary in order
to build a firm business foundation on the Indian scene, especially when
several other German, French and American recording companies were also
planning to capture the Asian market in general and the Indian market
in particular.
At around 9.00 a.m. a young lady entered the studio with all her
paraphernalia, including accompanists and relatives. Loaded fully with
very expensive ornaments and jewelry, this 30 year old, fair,
medium-built lady went onto the stage prepared for the recordings. Sarangi, harmonium, and tabla
players began to tune their instruments. Gaisberg personally checked
the equipment. A thick wax master record was placed on the turntable
rotating at 78 rpm. A huge recording horn was fitted on the wall behind
her and close to her face, and she was asked to sing loudly into the
horn. At the narrow end of the long horn a diaphragm fitted with a
needle was connected to the recording machinery, with a needle placed on
rotating disc for cutting the grooves. Gaisberg requested her to sing
for three minutes and announce her name at the end of the recording. At
the end of the trial recording she announced – ‘My name is Gauhar Jan‘.
This announcement was necessary since the wax masters were sent to
Hanover in Germany for pressing the records and the technicians would
make proper labels and confirm the name by listening to these
announcements at the end of the three minutes performance.
Here is one of those early recordings…listen to her announcing her name in the end…”My name is Gauhar Jan” :
