Gopeswar Bandopadhyay Biography 
Gopeswar Bandopadhyay, also known as Gopeswar Banerjee was an Indian classical singer and musicologist. He belonged to Bishnupur gharana of West Bengal. He was an expert of Rabindra sangeet, thumri, khyal and dhrupad renditions. Kon Gali Gayo Shyam, in Raga Mishra Khamaj is one of the popular tumris sung by Banerjee. He has also published books on many Indian ragas including dhrupad and Rabindra Sangeet. His brothers, Ramprasanna Banerjee and Surendranath Banerjee are also noted vocalists and musicologists. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1962 by Sangeet Natak Akademi.
He was born in 1880, in Bishnupur, Bankura in Bengal as the second son of Anantalal Banerjee. His father was a court musician of Ramkrishna Singhadev of Bishnupur. His father was a disciple of Ram Shankar Bhattacharya. Gopeswar Bandopadhyay started his career as a court musician in the year 1895. He was a court singer of Maharaja of Burdwan for 29 years. During this time, he conducted research on the history of Indian music. He got opportunity to travel with Maharaja and got acquainted with musicians of several regions of India. He also learnt to play surbahar from Sayed Mohammed and sitar from Imdad Khan. He published Sangita Chandrika in two volumes – a work on Indian music. It included notations for Tagore's composition, Patha ekhan kela alasita anga. Geet-Darpan, Geet-Praveshika and Sangeet-Lahari, written in Bengali are other noted works of Gopeswar Bandopadhyay.
Once he retired from the court musician post, he spent his next 20 years, till 1943 in Kolkata. He along with his cousin Surendranath Banerjee compiled numerous Dhrupad compositions with musical notations. Tarana - Adana Kewali (1908) and Langar Deet Mohe Gheri - Behag Kawali (1908) were two Hindustani musical records released by Gramophone Company, Calcutta. He is one among the vocalists of 20th century who performed the dhrupad-genre of singing.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 07, 2014
