Google honors India's first recording-artist Gauhar Jaan with a doodle
Google today remembered the legendary music and dance exponent Gauhar Jaan. It commemorated her 145th birth anniversary with a doodle. Born on this day in 1873, Gauhar was the first-ever Indian performer to record music on 78 rpm records, which was released by Gramophone Company. The doodle has Gauhar holding her cat with a gramophone in the background.
Gauhar had converted to Islam when she was 8-years-old
She was born Angelina Yeoward to an Armenian Christian father, Robert William Yeoward and an Indian Jewish mother, Victoria Hemmings. When her parents got divorced, she moved to Varanasi with her mother. They were accompanied by a Muslim nobleman, Khursheed. The mother-daughter duo then converted to Islam and became Malka Jaan and Gauhar Jaan respectively.
Gauhar's mother trained her in classical music and dance
An accomplished classical singer and Kathak dancer, Malka Jaan trained her daughter while they were in Varanasi. Two years later, they moved to Kolkata where Malka Jaan started performing in the courts of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. Meanwhile, Gauhar continued to brush up her skills as she learned various other forms of classical music and dance.
She came to be known as the 'first dancing girl'
Gauhar gave her maiden performance at the courts of Darbhanga Raj, in modern-day Bihar, in 1887 and was subsequently appointed as a court musician. In her records, she was referred to as the 'first dancing girl'.
Gauhar spent her last days in the Mysore Maharaja's palace
In her final days, Gauhar moved to Mysore at the invitation of Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV and was appointed as the 'Palace Musician'. She breathed her last on January 17, 1930. In all, Gauhar recorded more than 600 records in over ten languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, Arabic, Persian, Pushto, French, and English.
