Sir,

This has reference to the article “A Memory of Music at the Mysore Court” in Star of Mysore dated July 13, 2023 by your columnist Girija Madhavan and the subsequent riposte by my friend and veteran Journalist Gouri Satya on July 18, 2023 in a front page featured “Voice of the Reader” under the caption “Gauhar Jaan lies buried unknown and unwept in Mysore Khabarastan.”

Normally I peruse your e-paper everyday. Somehow  I had missed out on Girija Madhavan’s article.

I would like to add to what Gouri Satya has written on   Gauhar Jaan:

Her maiden name was Eileen Angelina Yeoward !

By a Memo No. 1262-63   dated 20th August 1928, Miss Gauhar Jaan was appointed as Palace Musician with effect from 1st August 1928 on a pay of Rs. 500 per mensem (every month) and this was inclusive of salaries of her musicians and accompaniments.

She was also given ‘Dil  Kush’  Cottage free for her residence. Her presence in Mysore during Birthday, Dasara and other important occasions was mandatory. However, she was free to leave Mysore with prior permission at all other times.

Incidentally, Rs. 8-8-0 was being deducted as Income Tax from her pay and Gauhar Jaan was not very pleased with the deduction !

In her brief stay at Mysore, she hardly performed on three occasions and yet received a handsome  bonus of Rs. 3,000 and Khillats worth Rs. 300. It appears her tantrums, extravagant style during those soiree and legal problems from the past were not to the liking of the Palace officials !

But she neither died at Mysore Palace nor at her residence ‘Dil Kush’! She was an inpatient K.R. Hospital and died there on Friday,  the 17th instant of January 1930! At the time of her death she had a maid servant from Kanpur (Sheriffin Patan) and a steward and his family from Calcutta (Abdul Rehman, wife and 3 children). They were all sent back by train with bonus payment.

A host of claims by sundry creditors from Mysore, from her long lost father, ex-husband and a Mysorean claiming as her current husband kept the Palace Office and City Magistrate busy staking claims on her estate for many years and this unseemly saga kept some  journalists busy even in distant Calcutta.

It is unlikely her burial ground was marked at all and hence it has remained unknown. At this distant time, one wonders if any one of  those alleged legal heirs managed to lay their hands on her personal belongings and unpaid salary or whatever happened to it ! 

It was a pathetic end and an even more disgusting saga of greed in the end !

– Raja Chandra, Bengaluru, 20.7.2023

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