Mogubai Kurdikar was born in a village in Goa in 1904 and died in Bombay in 2001. In the early 1980s, I used to read in the papers about th...
Mogubai Kurdikar was born in a village in Goa in 1904 and died in Bombay in 2001. In the early 1980s, I used to read in the papers about the very occasional performances she’d give. Those were my last years in Bombay, and I was deep into learning khayal myself, and learning about khayal. Everything related to it was of interest to me.
Mogubai was referred to in these reports as a “doyenne” – a word popular among music journalists – of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, also known as the Alladiya Khan gharana after its progenitor. Her reputation as a vocalist suffered slightly for always being spoken of in conjunction with at least one of two other reputed persons who both had an immense, standalone existence. The first was her older contemporary, Kesarbai Kerkar; the second, her daughter Kishori Amonkar.
Today, I am no longer sure how many people have actually heard her sing, though anyone familiar with North Indian classical music is certain to know of her through these contexts. But Mogubai is a considerable artist, with an achievement that’s not only of historic interest but one that’s worth acquainting oneself with directly.
A distinctive style
Kesarbai’s and her guru-behan Mogubai’s styles are very similar. The similarity...
