🎤Gauhar Jaan (Angelina Yeoward; 1873-1930) is the first world-famous Indian millionaire singer

 🎤Gauhar Jaan (Angelina Yeoward; 1873-1930) is the first world-famous Indian millionaire singer, who recorded about 600 records of her songs in several languages from 1902 to 1920. 150 of them have survived to this day.
🔹Gauhar Jaan (Jaan) was born on June 26, 1873 in Azamgarh, in the Ganges Delta in eastern India.
Father - William Robert Yeoward, an Armenian Christian who worked in an ice factory.
Mother - Victoria Heming, of Indian origin. The couple named their newborn daughter Eileen Angelina.
When Eileen was only 6 years old, her parents' quarrels escalated, and the family broke up.
After this, the mother, Victoria Heming, married a Muslim, Khurshid, and converted to Islam.
After her marriage, in 1883, Victoria and her daughter moved to Calcutta, where she was recognized under the name Badi Malka Jaan.
The name of the daughter Eileen became Gauhar Jaan.
The mother was left alone with her daughter, and Gauhar Jaan was sexually abused at the age of only 13, when she lived in a brothel with her courtesan mother.
🔹 Malka Jaan and her daughter Gauhar were trained in singing and classical dance.
Their gurus were Kale Khan of Patiala, Ali Baksh, Ustad Wazir Khan of Rampur, Pyare Sahib of Calcutta and the Great Maharaj Bindadin of Lucknow.
Within three years, Malka Jaan bought a building at 24 Chitpore Road (Rabindra Sarani) for 40,000 rupees, where she organized her performances.
Gauhar Jaan's "Rang Pravesam" (first performance) took place at the age of 14. Dancing to this song, Gauhar Jaan became the first dancer of Calcutta. Having impressed the Maharaja of Darbhanga with her performance, she became a singer at his court. She was such an expert in kayal, dhrupad and thumri that she was called the greatest kayal singer of that time.
🔹Kings, emperors and maharajas paid gold and silver for her performances, gave their precious ornaments as tribute.
She respected herself so much that at that time she never took less than 1000 rupees as a tribute.
Her fees were so high that no one dared to pay, but her talent was such that everyone wanted to listen to her songs. When the price of gold was 20 rupees per tola, she charged 3,000 rupees for recording a song and over 1,000 rupees as tribute for singing a song.
The general public was eager to hear the singer, so the Gramophone Company recorded her songs and made them available to the general public. When Gauhar was called to sing, she was even given a private train.
The Gramophone Company set up a temporary recording studio in two rooms in a hotel in Kolkata, where Gauhar Jaan (Jaan) arrived with her fellow singers. Gauhar arrived dressed head to toe in precious gold ornaments. The edges of her dark sari were embroidered with real gold. Frederick William Gaisberg, a recording engineer at the London Gramophone Company, asked the singer to climb on a table, place her head on the recording horn and sing loudly.
Due to the power of Gauhar's voice, the needle on the other side rotated and cut grooves on the shellac disc. Before the three-minute recording was over, Gauhar Jaan shouted loudly, "My name is Gauhar Jaan!" This later became her signature.
In fact, the reason for shouting the name was that in Germany, engineers would mark the plate only after hearing the name.
It is said that Gauhar Jaan had a hand in reducing classical music recordings to 3-4 minutes. Recordink plates were manufactured in Germany, which entered the Indian market in 1903. The demand for songs increased and later Gauhar's songs were recorded regularly.
🔹During each recording (and there were 600 of them), the singer, without repeating herself, appeared in countless precious gold and silver ornaments, which surprised people. She was the first millionaire singer of that time.
Mr. F. V. Gasbarth, a recording engineer at the Gramophone Company, always noticed that Gauhar Bai never repeated her clothes and gold ornaments in her recordings. Gauhar also loved luxury cars and royal carriages. She loved horse racing so much that every year during the races she would come from Calcutta to Mumbai. The cost of participation in his meeting used to be from 1000 to 3000 rupees. According to some sources, she was a millionaire. In those days, only royal families were millionaires.
Once Gauhar had to go to Denmark to perform. At a time when trains were scarce, Gauhar Jaan demanded a private train to transport her fellow singers, washerwoman, cook and hakim, which was granted. At a time when even 100 rupees was a lot of money, Gauhar Jaan bought a royal carriage worth 20,000 rupees to transport her kittens.
🔹When Gandhi started the Swaraj movement, he sought help from courtesans in raising funds. There was a dire need for funds, so Gandhi approached Gauhar Jaan, the most famous courtesan in Calcutta, whose talent and wealth were the talk of the country. Gauhar Jaan agreed to raise funds, but she made a condition that when she sang at a meeting, Gandhi himself should also be present.
Gandhi agreed, but he did not turn up for the meeting.

The speech did take place.
Gauhar Jaan waited for Gandhi all night.
From this collection, Gauhar collected donations worth 24 thousand rupees.
The next day, when Gandhi sent his assistant, Maulana Shaukat Ali, to collect the donations, Gauhar sat full of anger. When he asked for money, Gauhar gave only 12 thousand rupees and said:
- Your father talks about honesty, but he could not fulfill the promise given to a humble courtesan. Since he did not come himself, the Swaraj Fund is now entitled to only half the amount.
Gauhar Jaan formed the Tawaif Sangh fund and collected a lot of money. With the help of this fund, Gauhar supported Gandhi's movement in protest against English colonization.
🔹 The woman's personal life was full of troubles, burdened by three failed marriages and betrayal by relatives.
Gauhar married a player Tabla Pathan, who was 10 years younger and her assistant.
Pathan fraudulently took Gauhar's property in his name. After some time, when Gauhar came to know that despite being married, her husband was having affairs with other women, she started a legal battle. This went on for quite a long time. So, the money that Gauhar had left was also spent. During this time, Gauhar's mother Malka passed away.
Gauhar became close to Gujarati theatre actor Amrit Wagal Nayak, who became her support. Their relationship lasted for about 3-4 years, but Amrit's sudden death broke Gauhar even more.
Gauhar Jaan lived with her landlord Nimai Sen, but their relationship lasted only a few months.
🔹In 1911, a man named Baglu claimed in court that Gauhar Jaan was not the legitimate child of Malka Jaan. The man claimed that he himself was Malka Jaan's son, therefore, after Malka's death, all her property should go to him and not to Gauhar. During the trial, the question of who was Gauhar's father also arose. However, due to lack of evidence, Gauhar won the case.
The relatives who supported Gauhar and took her in gradually plundered all her wealth. In her last days, Gauhar began to feel penury.
Urged by her relatives, Gauhar Jaan became a singer in the Rampur Sabha. After staying there for a few days, Gauhar went to Mumbai. On August 1, 1928, Gauhar became the court singer of Mysore by the will of King Krishna Raja Wadiyar V of Mysore.
🔹 On January 7, 1930, Gauhar died in hospital during a fever. According to some sources, she committed suicide.
There is no information about where and who buried him.
Gauhar Jaan was forced to live in poverty in her last days and die without proper medical care.
Gauhara (Gauhar) Jan is remembered as the first world-famous Indian singer.
Several generations grew up in India listening to her songs.
Sources: bhaskar.com; Ifat Qureshi
📸 Dainik Bhaskar
🎤 Recording of Gauhar Jaan's voice https://youtu.be/n4D4AlXpPY8?feature=shared