JANKI BAI AKA ‘CHHAPPANCHHURI’: Saiyan Nikal Gaye Main Na Ladi Thi…

Great Heritage of Allahabad & Hindustani Classical Music
Jankibai ‘Chhappanchhuri’ (1880-1934) made records in a variety of styles in the early years of the gramophone industry. Jankibai was one of the most prominent singers to have been recorded in the early years of the gramophone industry. She captivated audiences through her concerts and her gramophone recordings. She recorded several discs that contained a large variety of song-forms. She was called "Chhappanchhurivali" because she had received 56 stab wounds. In early 1911 Janki recorded between sixty and seventy titles for TJ Noble of Pathephone and was paid Rs 5000. GTL was hot on her trail and she obliged them with twenty titles for Rs 3000, promising their recording engineer Arthur Spottiswoode Clarke another twenty-four titles. Since 1911 was a hectic year, extraordinary in many ways, the promise could not be kept for another three years. A happening year for the country and her. Allahabad was crowded with pilgrims when the Maha Kumbh Mela began in January. Thousands camped on the banks of the Ganga, ash-smeared ascetics from the great mutts of India, ordinary people come to meditate and do penance for a month, tradesmen, artists, acrobats. What made this particular Kumbh Mela special was that part of it coincided with the great industrial exhibition of the United Provinces (UP) held at Allahabad, designed to be the greatest Indian show of the century.

Janki was as excited about the crowning event of the exhibition as the rest of Allahabad’s citizenry. The February 18 event, when a Frenchman, Henri Pequet, would pilot a two-seater biplane across the Ganga, flying from Allahabad to Naini, carrying the first-ever cargo of airmail in the world! It would take off from Allahabad’s Polo Ground and land near the Naini railway station in a field cleared by convicts from the nearby Naini Jail. The event was highly publicised. Letters and cards addressed to locations all over the world were invited, to be stamped with a special magenta seal for 6 annas each before being dispatched to the sack of 6500 similar envelopes and specially designed postcards that would fly the ten-mile distance between Allahabad and Naini and earn the distinction of being part of the first aerial postal experiment in the world. Janki was generous and she well understood the power of the Big City and its easy opportunities, as well as the advantages of a physically attractive personality. If Allahabad was offering Gauhar a medal, Gauhar richly deserved it. What hurt her pride slightly was that she, Janki, along with certain other performers of the second grade, was included in the performance in the capacity of filler artists. This, her own Allahabad that she swore by!
1. Saiyan Nikal Gaye Main Na Ladi Thi    • SAIYAN NIKAL GAYE MAIN NA LADI THI - ...  
2. Raseeli Tori Ankhiyan Re (Bhairavi)-    • Janki Bai. Bhairavi. Raseeli tori akh...  
3. Lachkati Aawe Han Patli Kamariya-    • Lachkati Aawe  By Janki  Bai  Allahba...  
4. Behri Sitarkhani-    • Janki Bai of Allahabad. Behri Sitarkh...  
5. Lag Rah'i ! Naj'ariya, Ho Raam'a ! Tor'ay Par'anwaa (Chaiti)-    • بزم آراء ہے جانکی بائی ۔۔۔!!!۔