Forgotten Melodies — Mohe Panghat by Indubala Devi
Many of us have heard the famous song Mohe Panghat Pe in the iconic film Mughal-e-Azam. However, we may not be aware that there is the Mohe Panghat pe, thumri in raga Gara sung decades earlier by Indubala Devi, a singing superstar in the 1920s.
Due to the magic of the digital age, we can rediscover this hauntingly beautiful, but alas, mostly forgotten original melody.
An illustrious student of Gauhar Jaan
As the Archive of Indian Music declares in Pioneering Musicians: Women Superstars Of The Early Gramophone Era: “When recording came to India it was women who took the lead, disregarding several social prejudices and stigmas associated with this new technology and going ahead to record. This trend was seen all over India and thus, women became pioneers of the music industry in the country.”
Gauhar Jaan, who recorded one of the earliest first Indian Classical Music recordings in 1902, was perhaps the first Indian classical music superstar who made around 600 records in multiple languages.
Indubala was fortunate to have the legendary Gauhar Jaan as a mentor and teacher.
The article Poignant Notes, highlights that “Gauhar Jaan took on Indu Bala, the daughter of impoverished circus performers, and trained her to become an excellent singer. One of the jottings in Indu Bala’s diaries is a composition by Gauhar Jaan, in the rare raga Lakshmi Todi set to jhap tala,”
Ras ke bhare tore nain in the raga Mishra Bhairavi, the well known thumri in Hindustani classical music, has been sung by multiple generations of musicians; it was actually composed by Gauhar Jaan.
- Ras Ke Bhare Tore Nain sung by Gauhar Jaan
- Ras Ke Bhare Tore Nain being taught by Anjanibai Malpekar to Begum Akhtar
- Ras ke bhare tore nain sung by Hira Devi Mishra in the movie Gaman
- Gauhar Jaan — Thumri in Raga Sohini (perhaps, an inspiration for Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s Sohini in the film Mughal-e-Azam)
- Archive of Indian Music— Gauhar Jaan SoundCloud Play List
As we listen to Gauhar Jaan, we are in awe that the raga comes alive in just 3 minutes, and at the same time feel the regret, that the recording only allows 3 short minutes. And we yearn to travel back in time and hear more.
The article Poignant Notes, shares that “the renowned musicologist Thakur Jaidev Singh speaks highly of Gauhar Jaan as being without peer in her thumri singing” and also “recalled attending unforgettable night-long sessions starting at 8 p.m. between Gauhar Jaan and Agrewali Malka Jaan. In these fascinating sessions of Sawal-Jawab or musical repartees between two veteran singers, the audience would find it difficult to decide who the better of the two was.”
Visits to South India
V Sriram shares this fascinating anecdote about the meeting of the two legends Gauhar Jaan and Veena Dhanammal during Gauhar Jaan’s visit to Madras(now, Chennai): “In 1910 she travelled to Madras where C Gopala Chetty organized a concert of hers at the Victoria Public Hall. A dinner in her honor was organized by the legendary Veena Dhanammal. Intrigued by the Carnatic style of music, Gauhar Jan learnt the song Bhajana parula (raga Surutti) from Veena Dhanammal and released a record of it.
Indubala also visited Madras and gave concerts that were greatly appreciated. The following review highlights the essence of her soulful music that casts a spell even if we do not know the language of the lyrics.
Additional Listening
“Indubala Devi combines all the elements that go to make up good, real music.” — Newspaper Review in Dec 1935
