Santidev Ghose (also Santidev Ghosh, Shantidev Ghosh and Santideb Ghosh) (

Santiniketan Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...

, 7 May 1910 – 1 December 1999) was an Indian author, singer, actor, dancer and

maestro Maestro (; from the Italian '' maestro'' , meaning "master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, in line with the ubiqu ...

Rabindra Sangeet ''Rabindra Sangeet'' ( bn, রবীন্দ্র সঙ্গীত; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in ...

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

As a teenager, Ghosh was selected by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

to be a teacher in

and sent across India and even to Sri Lanka,

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

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

, 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 Asian music encompasses numerous musical styles originating in many Asian countries. Musical traditions in Asia * Music of Central Asia ** Music of Afghanistan (when included in the definition of Central Asia) ** Music of Kazakhstan ** 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 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.

Biography

Santidev Ghosh was born on 24 Baisakh 1317 (7 May 1910) in the village of Bajapti near Chandpur. At that time, it was part of the British-controlled areas of India and of the province of East Bengal. Today, it is in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. His father was Kalimohan Ghosh, who worked with

from before Santidev Ghosh was born, and was closely associated in the setting up the Rural Reconstruction Unit at

Visva-Bharati Visva-Bharati () is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which means the communion of the w ...

. His mother was Monorama Devi. Originally, Tagore took Kalimohan to work on rural reconstruction programs in the Tagore estates in Silaidah, today's Bangladesh. Later, Kalimohan was brought by Rabindranath Tagore to Santiniketan, to work on similar scheme of rural reconstruction at Sriniketan, adjacent to

. Kalimohan brought his six-month-old son, then named Santimoy (meaning peaceful) Ghosh, to Tagore. Tagore changed the middle part of his name, so his first name would be Santidev (meaning Lord of peace), which became Ghosh's common first name. Santidev had his school education at the Santiniketan Ashrama Vidyalaya, which Tagore had founded in 1901. This is where he acquired proficiency in music, dance and acting under the direct guidance of the poet himself and Dinendranath. As Tagore's emissary, he visited Sri Lanka,

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

and

and Bali, in today's

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

to learn music and dance of neighbouring countries. Santidev joined

Visva-Bharati University Visva-Bharati () is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which means the communion of the ...

as a teacher in 1930, when he was 20 years old. He married Smt. Ila Ghosh in 1946. Later he became professor and head of the Department of Rabindra Music and Dance at Sangit Bhavana, the music department of

. He also served as the principal of the institute between 1964 and 1968 and between 1971 and 1973. Santidev was appointed a member of the Advisory Board of Akasvani (All India Radio),

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

in 1948 and served as a member of the publication committee of the Sangeet-Natak Akademi, New Delhi (1956–60). He was the president of the music section of Prabasi Bango Sahitya Sammelan (Expatriate Bengali Cultural Organization) and Assam Sahitya Sammelan (1964). The prolific singer widely travelled in India and abroad. He visited the United Kingdom, Japan,

, Sri Lanka and the former

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

to acquaint himself with the culture and traditions of those countries and also to propagate the ideals of Rabindranath.

Awards and recognition

* Fellow of Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1977 – Indian National Academi of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi * Sureshchandra Memorial Ananda Award in 1980 – An award by the Ananda Publishers Group for outstanding contribution to culture * Padmabhusan by the Central

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 1984 – Third highest national award for a civilian. * Deshikottama, the highest award bestowed by the

in 1984, similar to an Honorary D.Litt. * Honorary D.Litt. from Burdwan University * Honorary D.Litt. Rabindra Bharati Universities in 1991 * Rabindra Tattvacharya at the Tagore Research Institute, Kolkata.

Publications

* ''Rabindra Sangeet'' (''Tagore Music'') * ''Java O Balir Nrityageet'' (''Music and Dance of

and Bali'') * ''Rupakar Nandalal'' (''Artist Nandalal'') * ''Bharatiya Gramin Sanskriti'' (''Folk Culture of India'') * ''Rabindranather Sikshadarshe Sangit O Nritya'' (''Music and Dance in the Rabindranath's Educational Philosophy'') * ''Gurudev Rabindranath O Adhunik Bharatiya Nritya'' (''Rabindranath Tagore and Dances of Modern India'') * ''Rabindra Sangit-Vichitra'' (''Rabindranath Tagore Music Miscellany'') * ''Nrityakala O Rabindranath'' (''The Art of Dance in the Eyes of Rabindranath Tagore'') * ''Jiboner Dhrubata'' (''The Polestar of Life''), his autobiography. * ''Shantidev"( a full-length documentary film by Shameek Siddartha produced by government of West Bengal)

Notes

Sources

Great Masters section on Visva Bharati University official siteSagarmoy Gosh: The Legend of a Man

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghosh, Santidev 1910 births 1999 deaths Bengali musicians Indian male writers Rabindra Sangeet exponents Indian musicologists Singers from Kolkata Singers from West Bengal 20th-century musicologists Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts 20th-century Indian male classical singers People associated with Santiniketan Visva-Bharati University alumni Visva-Bharati University faculty Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship People from North 24 Parganas district