Kesarbai Kerkar Death Anniversary: Every “raag” of Hindustani music has its own expressions. Be it Raag Bhopali, Raag Yaman or Raag Bhairavi. If someone masters these ragas, then no one can stop a musician from becoming successful. The person we are talking about today. Her voice has echoed even in space. Her name was Kesarbai Kerkar.
Singer Kesarbai Kerkar was related to Jaipur Gharana
Many famous personalities of the music world emerged from the “Jaipur Gharana”, one of the prestigious Gharanas of the country, one of them was classical singer Kesarbai Kerkar. Many were admirers of her “Raag Bhairavi”. She is the first Indian singer whose song “Jaat Kahan Ho…” was also sent into space.
Born on July 13, 1892, Kesarbai Kerkar started learning music at the age of eight. Kerkar studied classical music with Abdul Karim Khan in Kolhapur for eight months. After this, she became a disciple of Ustad Alladiya Khan, founder of the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana, in 1921. She took training in classical music for about 11 years. She tried her hand at singing for the first time in 1930. As long as Alladiya Khan was alive, Kesarbai Kerkar continued to learn music from him.
NASA sent his song to space
Kesarbai Kerkar got recognition from the song “Jaat Kahan Ho”. However, her biggest achievement came when her song “Jaat Kahan Ho” was sent into space in 1977 with the help of spacecraft Voyager-1 and Voyager-2. The Voyager-1 spacecraft sent by NASA has a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc, which has songs of composers Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach and even Mozart. It was named ‘The Sounds of Earth’ album.
Classical singer Kesarbai Kerkar was also awarded many awards for her contribution to the field of art. She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1953 and Padma Bhushan in 1969.
Poet Rabindranath Tagore gave the title of ‘Surashree’
The magic of Kesarbai’s voice touched the hearts of poets and prime ministers. The poet Rabindranath Tagore gave her the title of ‘Surshri’ after listening to her music in 1938. Honouring her as the “Queen of Raga” (Surshri), Rabindranath Tagore wrote about her, “I consider myself fortunate that I had the opportunity to listen to Kesarbai’s singing.”
The great Kesarbai, who illuminated Indian classical music across the world with her voice, said goodbye on 16 September 1977.
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