Biography of santidev ghosh

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Santiniketan: Mohan Singh, who was born in a village near Kila Raipur in Ludhiana district, still remembers how Santidev Ghosh, the venerable principal of the Visva Bharati’s famous Sangit Bhavan, got a ramp made for him at the boy’s hostel within two days so that he could move in there on his wheelchair.

Singh (68) has more than 150 Rabindra Sangeet (songs written by Tagore) to his credit besides an impressive repertoire of kheyal and dhrupads. He enjoys great respect in the institution. Polio-stricken, he would have found it extremely difficult to study in Santiniketan had there been no ramp in his hostel.

Mohan Singh always liked music and had basic training in it. After finishing school, he wanted to pursue music as a career. It was Balraj Sahni, who had taught in Santiniketan, who would encourage Mohan Singh to enrol as a student there. The legendary actor was a friend of one of Mohan Singh’s cousins. Santideb Ghosh also took active interest in enrolling Mohan Singh at the music school.

Mohan is now retired, but he is allowed to continue to teach music at Sangit Bhavana. Students also receive lessons from him at home. He recalls how as a student, he tried to introduce some bhangra steps in the dance performed with Tagore songs in Santiniketan. “There were some Punjabi boys. With their help I tried to introduce some bhangra steps. It worked for a while but were forgotten gradually,” says Mohan Singh.

The Santiniketan veteran recalled that Kelucharan Nair and Haridas Nair, both trained in Kathakali, also tried different things for the dance. “Their (the two Nairs’) movements were like those of a leopard!” 

Mohan Singh was married into a Bengali family and has fondness for Hilsa fish. His son Abir Singh Khangura (another son is no more) likes to adhere to the Sikh tradition. Abir, who sports a beard and wears a turban, teaches esraz (an instrument which is used in Sikh devotional

Indian author, singer, actor, dancer (1910–1999)

Santidev Ghose (also Santidev Ghosh, Shantidev Ghosh and Santideb Ghosh) (Santiniketan, 7 May 1910 – 1 December 1999) was an Indian author, singer, actor, dancer and maestro of Rabindra Sangeet.

Sagarmoy Ghosh, the renowned editor of Bengali literary journal Desh, was his younger brother. [1]

As a teenager, Ghosh was selected by Rabindranath Tagore to be a teacher in Santiniketan and sent across India and even to Sri Lanka, Java and Bali to further his musical education for that purpose. Tagore also encouraged Ghosh to act and dance in the poet-laureate's dance dramas, for which Ghosh displayed an uncommon talent for singing, as well as dancing and acting. Some of the poems of Tagore which he converted to new forms of poem-songs, to be sung continuous without repeating the first two lines after each stanza, such as "Krishnakali", were first presented to the public by Ghosh. During his long and productive life in Santiniketan, Ghosh taught numerous students, many of whom were to later become famed notable singers themselves, such as Suchitra Mitra and Pramita Mallick. He also garnered fame as author and an authority, on Asian music and especially that of Rabindranath Tagore. During his life, he received notable awards and recognition from the music academies as well as Universities and the Government of India, and was declared a National Scholar by the Government of India. In 2002, India released a postage stamp on Ghosh to commemorate his contribution to music. The Minister for Communication and Information Technology noted that Ghosh "belonged to that class of musicians who through the ages carried forward music's unique creativity".

In 1976, he was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship the highest honour conferred by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama.

Biography

Santidev Ghosh wa

Santidev Ghosh (1910-99)

Son of Kalimohan Ghosh, Santidev was born in Chandpur, Bangladesh and came to Santinketan with his parents when he was not even a year old. He was a student at the Santiniketan Vidyalaya and at an early age acquired proficiency in music, dance and acting. He joined Visva-Bharati as a teacher in 1930 and also took dance classes for the boys and girls of Patha Rhavana. He was Adhyaksha of Sangit Bhavana from 1964 to 68 and from 1971 to 1973.

Rabindranath encouraged him to visit Java, Bali and Sri Lanka to learn oriental dance forms. He studied classical and folk dance at Santiniketan and was skilled in Dhrupadi-Sangit and folk music. Among the numerous books he wrote, the following may be mentioned: Rabindra-Sangit, Java O Balir Nrityagit, Rabindranather Purnanga Sikshadarse Sangit O Nritya, Rabindra Sangit Vicitraand Rabindra Nrityakala. 
He was nominated a fellow of the Sangit Natak Akademi in 1976. In 1985, Visva-Bharati conferred upon him the Desikottama and Rabindra-Bharati and Burdwan University awarded him honorary D.Litt. Degrees.