Renuka Dasgupta (; 22 August 1910 – 1 January 1991) was a Bengali singer, best known for the songs of

Atulprasad Sen Atul Prasad Sen ( bn, অতুল প্রসাদ সেন; 20 October 1871 – 26 August 1934) was a Bengali composer, lyricist and singer, and also a lawyer, philanthropist, social worker, educationist and writer. Early life Atul Prasad ...

. She was a direct disciple of

, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Dilipkumar Roy.

Early life

Born in Konnagar, West Bengal, Dasgupta lived in

Gaya Gaya may refer to: Geography Czech Republic *Gaya (German and Latin), Kyjov (Hodonín District), a town Guinea * Gaya or Gayah, a town India *Gaya, India, a city in Bihar **Gaya Airport *Bodh Gaya, a town in Bihar near Gaya *Gaya district, Bi ...

, Dhaka and Calcutta. She was a cousin of

Sahana Devi Sahana Devi ( bn, সাহানা দেবী) (1897–1990) was an Indian singer, she was a widely listened to singer of Rabindra Sangeet. She was the niece of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. Career She was born into an illustrious Bengali Brahm ...

, Kanak Biswas (née Das).Interview with Renuka Dasgupta by Subhas Chowdhury Dasgupta taught music in Kamrunnesa Girls High School at Tikatuli, Dhaka in the late 1920s. She married Hirendra Chandra Dasgupta, a graduate engineer of

Bengal Engineering College Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur (IIEST Shibpur), erstwhile Bengal Engineering College (also known as B.E. College), formerly Bengal Engineering and Science University (also known as BESU), is a public research u ...

in the early 1930s and settled permanently in Calcutta. She was associated with the radio audition committee of All India Radio (AIR) in Calcutta.

Early work

In 1932, three Indian recording companies were formed in Calcutta out of a nationalistic urge to compete with the British-owned

Gramophone Company of India Saregama India Ltd. (Saregama refers to the first four notes of the Indian musical scale); formerly known as The Gramophone Company Of India Ltd. is India's oldest music label owned by the RP- Sanjiv Goenka Group of companies. The company i ...

. One of these was Hindusthan Records. The owner C.C. Saha requested Rabindranath Tagore to record some songs and recitations. From those recordings were published the first record, ''H1''. Atulprasad Sen recorded two songs which were published in the second record, ''H2''. The third record, ''H3'', had the songs "" (''

kirtan Kirtana ( sa, कीर्तन; ), also rendered as Kirtan, is a Sanskrit word that means "narrating, reciting, telling, describing" of an idea or story, specifically in Indian religions. It also refers to a genre of religious performance arts ...

'') and "" (Atulprasad) sung by Renuka Sengupta. Sales of this record reached an unprecedented high.A Space of Her Own :Personal Narratives of Twelve Women Dasgupta was also trained by Kazi Nazrul Islam and recorded two songs under his tutelage,

Krishna Chandra Dey Krishna Chandra Dey (24 August 1893 – 28 November 1962), better known as K.C. Dey, was an Indian music director, music composer, musician, singer, actor, and music teacher born in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He was S.D. Burman's first musical te ...

. The recorded song was "". In 1935 she was trained by

Sailajaranjan Majumdar Sailajaranjan Majumdar (19 July 1900–24 May 1992) was a distinguished exponent and teacher of Rabindra Sangeet. Early life The son of Ramanikishore and Saralasundari Majumdar, Sailajaranjan was born at Baham, Netrokona, now in Bangladesh, on ...

to sing Rabindra Sangeet songs chosen for her by Rabindranath Tagore. She went on to record five Rabindra Sangeets in her career.Abismaraniyo Rabindrasangeet vol 1

Recorded Rabindra Sangeets

# "" (1935) # "" (1935) # "" # "" # ""

Recorded Nazrul Geeti

# "" # ""

Recorded songs of Atul Prasad

# "" (1932) # "" # "" # "" # "" (1969–70) # "" # "" # "" # "" # "" # "" # "" # "" (1969–70) # "" (1969–70) # "" # "" # "" # ""

Recorded songs in other genres (list incomplete)

# "" (''

'') # "" # ""Jnanadas (''kirtan'') # "" ( ''bhatiyali'') # "" (''kirtan'') # "" (''kirtan'') # ""

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dasgupta, Renuka Bengali singers 1991 deaths 1910 births Singers from Kolkata Rabindra Sangeet exponents 20th-century Indian singers 20th-century Indian women singers Women musicians from West Bengal 20th-century women composers 19th-century women composers