Manik Varma (16 May 1926 – 10 November 1996) was an

Indian classical Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were no ...

singer from the Kirana and

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra i ...

gharanas (singing styles).

Career

Besides the pure classical

khyal Khyal or Khayal (ख़याल / خیال) is a major form of Hindustani classical music in the Indian subcontinent. Its name comes from a Persian/Arabic word meaning "imagination". Khyal is associated with romantic poetry, and allows the perfo ...

, she also sang semi-classical and light music like

thumri Thumri () is a vocal genre or style of Indian music. The term "thumri" is derived from the Hindi verb ''thumuknaa'', which means "to walk with a dancing gait in such a way that the ankle-bells tinkle." The form is, thus, connected with dance, dr ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

Natya Sangeet ''Sangeet Natak'' in Marathi language literally means Musical Drama. As the name suggests, this form of drama combines prose as well as poetry in form of songs to convey the story. In a manner, they are very much similar to Musicals. ''Sangeet ...

, Bhavgeet and Bhakti geet (devotional music). She was a disciple of

Hirabai Barodekar Hirābai Barodekar (1905 – 1989) was an Indian Hindustāni classical music singer, of Kirana gharana. She was disciple of Ustād Abdul Wahid Khān. Early life and background Hirabai was born as Champākali to Kirānā Gharānā master Us ...

and Sureshbabu Mane, daughter and son of Abdul Karim Khan, the founder of the Kirana gharana.She also took her rigorous training in Thumri Gayaki from Pandit Bholanath Bhatt of ‘Bhatt Parampara’ in Prayag, Allahabad. She took further training from Azmat Hussain Khan "Dilrang" and Jagannathbua Purohit "Gunidas" of Agra gharana. In April 1955, her songs became part of the

Geet Ramayan ''Geet Ramayan'' ( mr, गीत रामायण, en, The Ramayana in Songs) is a collection of 56 Marathi language songs chronologically describing events from the Indian Hindu epic, the ''Ramayana''. It was broadcast by All India Radio, ...

, a presentation of songs on the Hindu god Rama, a weekly year-long programme by

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

(AIR),

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

, along with artists like

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her con ...

Yogini Joglekar Yogini Joglekar (6 Aug 1925 – 1 November 2005) was a Marathi writer, poet and also a classical singer. Career Yogini was born in Pune in 1925 and completed her school education in B.A. She was working as teacher between 1948 and 1953. She did ...

, Usha Atre, Babanrao Navdikar and Sudhir Phadke. She trained students including Asha Khadilkar and Shaila Datar.

Personal life

Her maiden name was Manik Dadarkar (

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

: माणिक दादरकर). Her daughters include Rani Varma, also a singer , Aruna Jayprakash, Bharati Achrekar, an actor, and

Vandana Gupte Vandana Gupte is a Marathi stage actress who has also performed television and film roles. Career Her most well-known TV role was as the domineering Nilambari Pandey in Zee TV's comedy serial ''Kareena Kareena''. She was a part of project d ...

, a Marathi stage, film and television actor.

Awards

She received the prestigious

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

award from the

government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

in 1974, followed by the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award given by the

Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in English) is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India. History It was set up by the Indian education ministry on 31 May 1952 and ...

, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama in 1986.

Legacy

In her memory ''Manik Varma Pratishthan'' was established in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, which also presents Manik Ratna Award and scholarships. It also organises function on the birth and death anniversary of Manik Verma. On her eighth death anniversary, on 12 November 2004, a musical programme ''Baharla Parijaat Daari'' was presented by ''Devgandharva Bakhlebua Trust'' at Tilak Smarak Mandir in

References

External links

*
List of Manik Varma songs
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmKyQzug2FE {{DEFAULTSORT:Varma, Manik Women Hindustani musicians 1926 births 1996 deaths Musicians from Mumbai Marathi-language singers Indian women classical singers Marathi music Performers of Hindu music Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Thumri Kirana gharana 20th-century Indian singers Hindustani singers 20th-century Indian women singers Women musicians from Maharashtra 20th-century Khyal singers