Sarala Debi
Notators · 1872–1945 · 28 songs notated
Born at Jorasanko in 1872 to Swarnakumari Devi and Janakinath Ghosal, Sarala Debi took a BA in English from Bethune College in 1890 with the college's first Padmavati gold medal. She trained in music in the same house as her uncle Rabindranath, and set tunes for the nationalist songs of the day.
Her public life ran wider than music. She edited Bharati — jointly from 1895, alone from 1899 — founded Lakshmi Bhandar in 1904 to sell women's handicraft, and in 1910 founded the Bharat Stree Mahamandal, generally reckoned the first national women's organisation in India. She opened the Siksha Sadan girls' school in Calcutta in 1930.
Her memoir Jibaner Jharapata, serialised in Desh in 1942–43, is the primary account of her own life and of the Jorasanko household from the inside.
Sources
- সরলা দেবী, জীবনের ঝরাপাতা — her memoir, scanned edition
- ভারতী — the journal she edited, 1899–1907