Monday, September 6, 2010

Balaka, Prativa Sundari Devi

Prativa Sundari Devi (1866-1922) was the daughter of Hemendranath, the third son of Debendranath Tagore.  She was the only woman in Thakur Bari  who was highly educated. She studied in Bethune and then in Loreto. She was exceptionally brilliant in music. She mastered both eastern and western music. She took the role Saraswati in Balmiki Prativa in its first performance  and was highly appreciated. Bankim Chandra was present on the occasion. Not only in performance she had contributed to some theoritical aspects of music.She also gave notations to Rabindranath's lyric and earned a reputation. The notation of the song "Bal Golap More Bal" of Tagore was done by her  which was  the first  printed notation of Tagore's lyric. She was married to Ashutosh Choudhury. She continued singing even after her marriage. She took an important role in publicising and circulation of  Tagore songs.She founded a school for music with the name of "Sangeet Sangha". This school felicitated Rabindranath on 21st Aug 1921 for winning the Nobel Prize.
In Balaka, she wrote an article in which she discussed Marga Sangeet. In her article she also gave notations to some of the songs and discussed some basic points on music.  "Balaka" was a magazine for children, but it contained different departments. e.g., travel, drama, exercise, music and editorial with letters to the editor. Prativa Sundari Devi was in charge of the column on music. She wrote many essays on music in 'Balaka' covering 41 pages in the compiled book. In fact she tried to give an introductory lesson in music through this medium under the title "Sahaje Gan-shiksha". She discussefd about beats, gaps with examples.