“There is Baba Vishwanath, there is Maa Ganga and there is Girija,” said Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan Saab, seated on the banks of the Ganga by his favourite temple, in an older interview to Doordarshan when he was asked to name the three big things that keep him in Benaras. While the first two are known to everyone, the last, Girija was in reference to Girija Devi. One of the last exponents of the Banaras gharana of thumri passed away on 24 October at the Birla Heart Research Institute. She had been ailing with several health problems for some time. She was 88.
This year has been a sombre one for the world of Indian classical music, with several maestros making their final exit. If the first half of the year saw the entire country mourning over the sudden demise of the queen of Jaipur-Atrauli gharana Vidushi Kishori Amonkar, several others like Dhrupad singer Sayeeduddin Dagar, Sitar maestro Ustad Abdul Haleem Jaffer Khan and Sarangi maestros Ramesh Mishra and Dhruba Ghosh too, made their final exit. Girija Devi, fondly addressed by her fans and friends as Appa-ji, represented the last of the big divas of thumri singing in the Banaras tradition.
Banaras, the ancient city has been a proud home to numerous performing arts. Classical vocal and instrumental music, Hindi drama, Kathak and several other forms were nurtured by a thriving subculture of traditional performance practitioners popular as Baijis or Tawaifs. The patronage of local kings and Zamindars enhanced this tradition by leaps and bounds. Thumri as a light classical genre gained popularity with several performers in the last century. Names like Rasoolan Bai, Siddheshwari Devi and Begum Akhtar had already paved the way and established it as a genre. It was into that rich tradition that Girija Devi was born on 8 May 1929. According to veteran Hindi writer and music historian Gajendra Singh from Patna, her father Ramdeo Rai was a Bhaumihar Zamindar and her mother Suryamukhi Devi belonged to the Devadasi community. Girija was the third child to the couple after two daughters. Her father encouraged her to take to music as he himself played the harmonium.
Girija Devi began taking music lessons as a six-year-old as her father was known to be fond of the harmonium. As a 10-year-old, she sang at the Congress session in Jabalpur in 1939 and earned the praise of Mahatma Gandhi for her poignant performance as an untouchable girl in the film, Yaad Rahe. Formal training was under Gurus Sarangi maestro, Pandit Sarju Prasad Misra and Srichand Misra of the Seniya gharana. As a teenager, she was already giving private mehfil concerts in Banaras. Girija found a kind and encouraging patron in businessman Madhusudhan Jain. She was only fifteen when she got married to him. They had a daughter Sudha Dutta, fondly addressed as Munni by music lovers, who didn’t pursue music as a profession. Girija Devi’s first major performance was for the All India Radio in Allahabad in 1949. The big recognition came when she performed at the AIR music conference of 1952. She was an instant hit with music lovers.
Post India’s independence, in the 21st century, the only name that can claim credit for the consistent popularisation of thumri alongside Vidushi Shobha Gurtu (1925-2004) was that of Girija Devi’s. Her repertoire in the semi-classical genre was rich unlike no one else’s. Along with her Purab Ang thumri, Girija Devi also mastered sub-genres like dadra, tappa, chaiti, kajri, hori, sawan and many others that took influences from regional cultures spread across the northern belt.
Over the past few decades, she became the only representative of Purab Ang style of singing. In an older interview a concerned veteran journalist asked her what would happen to her style after she was gone. “Did all women commit jauhar after Jhansi ki Rani passed away? That femininity and resolve have survived in many ways. Don’t ask what will happen after me. Come and take whatever you can, while I am alive!” she replied. It was this grit and determination that kept her going despite many health problems.
The Purab Ang style of music became synonymous with her name. She had consciously worked on removing the lewdness associated with the lyrics in her genre of music. While she was criticised of ‘cleansing the thumri’ she never once compromised on the quality of romanticism that are possible in thumris and dadras. Thanks to recording technology, a lot of Girija Devi’s music has been saved for posterity. She was also the subject of several books and documentaries on her life. In the last couple of decades, SPIC MACAY made her a popular name among thousands of school and college children through their events and conventions.
For her contribution to the field of Indian classical music, Girija Devi was honoured with the Padma Shri (1972), Padma Bhushan (1989), Padma Vibhushan, the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1977) and several other prestigious awards. She served as a visiting faculty member at the Banaras Hindu University and the ITC-Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata. With her demise, the genre of thumri faces a severe drought as for a long shot there are very far and few exponents of her mettle and stature.
Veejay Sai is an award-winning writer, editor and culture critic.
