Searching the early gramophone recordings of Uttarakhand

A cultural activist recently donated his collection of folk music and instruments to the Dehradun based Doon Library and Research Centre. Among the items received are old gramophone recordings from Kumaon. The shellac recording provides new information about the commercially recorded folk songs from Uttarakhand-especially from Kumaon. From the collection of the Doon library, based in Dehradun, it can be said that the commercial recording of the earliest Kumaoni song took place in the late 1930s. An unknown fact in Uttarakhand! The gramophone record history of Uttarakhand remains undocumented so far due to lack of information. In this piece we profile early gramophone records released from 1920 to 1979. Major languages in Uttarakhand Garhwali, Kumaoni and Jaunsari are the three major languages of Uttarakhand. According to the 2011 Census of India, over 24 Lakh people speak Garhwali, 20 Lakh others speak Kumaoni and over one Lakh speak Jaunsari/Jaunpuri. Language sampling The earliest recording of Garhwali, Kumaoni and Jaunsari recording can be traced way back to 1920 when the Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) recorded these languages. A Garhwali story by Gunanand Dhasmana, a Kumaoni story by Chandan Singh and a Jaunsari song by Madho Ram & Nand Ram were recorded under the LSI project. Under the leadership of George A. Grierson, a total of 179 languages and 544 dialects were compiled by the Linguistic Survey of India in over thirty years. The recordings were done for language samplings and were purely academic. New findings The records of Master Sher Singh (accompanied by Indira Bai & Rampyari), Gopi Devi and Champa Devi are now in the collection of the Doon Research Centre and Library. Writer, folk music historian and cultural Jugal Kishore Petsali from Almora donated his collection and on the decision say, “I collected the folk music items and recordings in 25 long years. For the gramophone records I had to move from pillar to post. Little information is available on the earlier recorded Kumaoni singers- Master Sher Singh, Gopi Devi and Champa Devi.” The trio of Master Sher Singh, Indira Bai and Rampyari featured in a gramophone record released by Aero-Phone Records, which used to operate from Delhi and Ujjain. From the record number (NZ 1145) it can be said that it was released in 1929. No information about singer Master Sher Singh is available but Indira Bai was from Alwar. She was a trained singer and even sung Hindustani classical songs and folk numbers for recording companies and All India Radio. Another female singer Rampyari’s connection with Kumaon hills remains unidentified. Unknown Gopi and Champa Gopi Devi was probably the most talented and prolific female singers from Kumaon in her time. She was active in the music industry and has three Kumaoni records released to her credit. She even sung folk songs on the independence movement of the country. Tracking the year in which the shellacs of Gopi Devi and Champa Devi, both in Kumoani language, were released is difficult. In those times the release year was not printed on the records. Another hurdle is that the records by these two singers were mentioned as Pahari. Based on the little information printed on the records, the author approached Australian sound archivist, record collector and historian Ross Laird who thinks that the Gopi Devi (GE 5337, Columbia) and Champa Devi (GE 5285, Columbia) were recorded possibly in late 30s or early 40s. Even these two female singers who featured in early Kumaoni records remain a mystery. What was their background? How and when these singers migrated from Kumaon hills? Who promoted them to take out the gramophone records? Little information is available. Dr. Suresh Chandvankar, Honorary Secretary of Society of Indian Record Collectors (Mumbai) has done extensive work on old gramophone recordings and he had recently uploaded a 1945 recording of Miss Champa Devi online. Though the song is in Hindustani it gives a clear idea that even Champa was a professional singer. Searching a recording of an artist is complicated, as Sunny Mathew, owner of ‘Discs & Machines - Sunny’s Gramophone Museum and Records Archive’ (Kerala) says, “We can search a known number. Searching an artist is like looking for a lost pin in a hay stake.” In Kumaon region the highlanders remember just two records-one by Gopal Babu Goswami (1979) and another by Mohan Upreti/Naima Khan (1950s). Old theory Earlier it was assumed that Jeet Singh Negi was the first recorded artist from Uttarakhand. Negi became a household in 1949 by recording the first Garhwali gramophone record. Jeet Negi’s number was released by the Young India Gramophone Company and it was re-released by Columbia. The new findings make Master Sher Singh the first recorded Kumoani singers and also the earliest folk singers from Uttarakhand to feature in a gramophone record. Gramophone players were not in common use in Garhwal and Kumaon during British rule, so tracking the old records remains a challenge in the Himalayan state. Such gadgets were mainly with the army units and selected groups of people. The records donated by Petsali clears some confusion but in-depth research needs to be conducted on the subject. The record which was in the collection of folk singer Jeet Singh Negi broke down when he was cleaning the disk at his residence in Dehradun. Jeet Negi died in 2020 and during his lifetime made various attempts to get his record. For this he conducted extensive searches and even approached many people in different cities, but he failed. The case of ‘Bedu Pako’ folk song fame Mohan Upreti is similar and his gramophone record with wife Naima Khan remains elusive. Gramophone of Jaunsari song In 1960 Folkways Records released ‘Songs of Assam, Uttar Pradesh and the Andaman’ (FE 4380). The number consisted of songs recorded by the Department of Anthropology. Two Jaunsari songs featured in the gramophone record. The songs were recorded at Mohana and Konain villages. This is possibly the only gramophone recording from the Jaunsar area. Conclusion The gramophone record history of Uttarakhand is exciting. Many forgotten singers have enriched the hill folk. Even after leaving their ancestral village and staying in big towns the artists remained connected with their roots. The songs of the earlier gramophone records from Uttarakhand provide a glimpse of the nostalgia of the artists. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. 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