78 RPM - Kanan Debi - অঙ্গনে আয়ব যব রসিয়া [Aṅganē Āẏaba Yaba Rasiẏā] / সজল নয়ান করি পিয়া পথ হেরি হেরি [Sajala Naẏāna Kari Piẏā Patha Hēri Hēri] - New Theatres Megaphone Record - India

78 RPM Record

Artist:	Kanan Debi
Label:	New Theatres Megaphone Record
Country:	India
Catalogue:	I.N.G. 5242
Date:
Format:	10"
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	1 Owns
Price Guide:	Valuation Page
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Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
A	Kanan Debi	অঙ্গনে আয়ব যব রসিয়া [Aṅganē Āẏaba Yaba Rasiẏā]		Rate
B	Kanan Debi	সজল নয়ান করি পিয়া পথ হেরি হেরি [Sajala Naẏāna Kari Piẏā Patha Hēri Hēri]		Rate

Notes

A&B: From the Film "Vidyapati" (Bengali Version)
Music direction: R.C. Boral

A mx: OMC. 8933; B mx: OMC. 8936.

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Comments and Reviews


xiphophilos 16th Aug 2016		From an article in The Hindu, Aug. 5, 2002: "Preserving these discs were always cumbersome and so naturally, even the Gramophone Company of India, that held monopoly over recordings for a long while, dispensed with most of their collections." So our work here, as limited as it is, is still doing its little share of preserving what otherwise would be lost. The one Senola record we have in the database, for example, Senola Q.S. 120, is missing from an Indian site that deals with movie songs in the Oriya language and has several other Senolas with songs from that same movie, "Sakhigopal" http://hindi-movies-songs.com/madani/OriyaWebPage.html.



slholzer 16th Aug 2016		Some excellent points, xiphophilos. There are more Indian 78s on that one site than worldwide 78s on EBay. One might easily extrapolate a half a million total recordings from a sample of that size. Clearly, somebody has a major project ahead of them to fully document India's recordings, whether there were 500,000 or only 250,000. As I said before, mind-boggling. One bright spot, I suppose, is the importance of HMV in the Indian market. I would imagine that HMV's archives are probably extensive, even if they no longer have exemplars of all 500,000 discs. I wish whoever tackles that project the best of luck.



xiphophilos 14th Aug 2016		The estimate of more than 500,000 different gramophone record titles issued in India alone comes from an online article about the history of Indian gramophone records http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/indcent.htm. In fact, the writers estimate that 500,000 is the number of titles issued by the Gramophone Co. of India alone (labels HMV, Columbia, Twin, Odeon). Yet there were at least another 11 companies producing sometimes more than one label and between 1,000 and 3,000 titles each. Looking at the ebay-like site http://indianvinylrecords.com/used-brittle-records-10/, I personally find this estimate absolutely credible. In fact, the 78-rpm record production of the US, as large as it was, probably pales beside that of India, for the simple reason that India had many more potential buyers of records, which, after all, are a relatively inexpensive luxury. All through the shellac era, India's population was always more than twice as large as that of the United States. Here's a comparison: 1900: US 76,212,168 vs. India 271,306,000. 1920: US 106,021,537 vs. India 249,699,000. 1930: US 123,202,624 vs. India 277,175,000. 1940: US 142,164,569 vs. India 316,004,000. 1950: US 161,325,798 vs. India 350,445,000. (Source: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h980.html and http://www.populstat.info/Asia/indiac.htm. Our database currently contains only 202 Indian records, a pitifully small fraction of the actual production. Moreover, most of the records we have documented are Indian releases of Western artists, like Elvis, the Beatles, and Connie Francis. Even the labels represented are mostly Indian subsidiaries of large British or Western companies, such as Brunswick, Capitol, Columbia, Decca, Gramophone Co., His Master's Voice, London, Mercury, MGM, Parlophone, Pathe, Regal Zonophone, Stateside, The Twin, Warner Bros., Zonophone. So far not listed on 45world are, for example, the Indian subsidiaries of Beka, Broadway, KidKord, Nicole Records, and Odeon. Worse, our database contains hardly any titles in Indian languages (such as Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujrathi, Gurumukhi, Marathi, Marwari, Nepali, Bhojpuri, Sindhi, Canarese (Kanadi), Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Sanskrit, etc). I bet there were many more of those than the English-language titles. The songs for Bollywood films alone must number in the thousands (the site I mentioned above lists more than 2,700 different Bollywood 78s currently on sale). The number of India-based labels represented on 45worlds is only three, Hindustan Records, New Theatres Megaphone Record, and Senola (all were produced by the same Bombay-based company). Again, that's just a fraction of what existed. Missing labels are, for example, Bulbul, Gurjiphone, James Opera, Jien-O-Phone Record, Kali Films Records, Kalyan Record, Kohinoor Record, Marwari Records, Megaphone, Melody, Orient, Ramaphone/Ramagraph Records, Shahenshahi Record, Singer Record, Sun Disc, The King Records, Young India (variant), and Young Iran (Bombay subsidiary).



slholzer 13th Aug 2016		I am out of my usual range here, so I hope nobody puts undue emphasis on what I say. Still, I doubt that you can find 50 labels in America that issued 10 new records a month for as long as 80 years, and that's with an economy that has always been (at least during the relevant time frame of the 1890s to the present) the marvel of the world. Many revered American labels had life spans as short as a few years and would have been quite over-extended to attempt ten issues a month. On the other hand, there could have been more active labels in India that would have made up some of the difference. Who can say how many issues the local branch of HMV issued every month. Also, India might have been one place on earth where HMV and American Victor actively competed with one another for the local trade, although I would guess American Victor's Indian program would have been less extensive than HMV's. I suppose it is also probable that Indian labels re-issued large numbers of recordings from the US and Europe. They would not be alone in doing that, and would, in fact, be conspicuous by their absence if they didn't. If we counted ethnic Indian recordings issued in America it would be a miniscule part of the total output, but if we counted American "ethnic" recordings pressed in India, I think it would be a different story.



xiphophilos 3rd Aug 2016		Just to support your point about the many different Indian languages, a Hindi version of Kanan Devi songs from Vidyapati was issued on New Theatres Megaphone Record I.N.G. 1047: Hindi version



Job Lowe 2nd Aug 2016		50 labels issuing 10 new records a month for 80 years would approach half a million issues. So far 45worlds has 202 Indian 78 releases. It will probably take a while to validate or void the half a million estimation and I look forward to some interesting surprises along the way. Note that this issue has the words "Bengali version" on the label. There are several different languages spoken in modern India, and it's likely that some popular tunes would be translated and issued for these different linguistic groups. This may be another factor helping to achieve that half a million figure.



slholzer 2nd Aug 2016		Half a million recordings from India alone is a mind-boggling thought. I have occasionally set my mind to trying to estimate the total number of 78 rpm issues from America, the western world, and worldwide. I would have guessed the total output worldwide to have been no more than that, if, in fact, it got that high. It is a good point, however, that the 78 was a standard medium in India and other less economically advanced parts of the world for a longer time than in the USA. Moreover, it was a very large, even if relatively poor, market. I have seen in various library visits that there is a growing wave of research into Ethnic music recordings. There may be some major surprises in store as they more fully document the "inscrutable" East.



Job Lowe 1st Aug 2016		Here's a page from The Society of Indian Record Collectors which estimates that there were about half a million records issued. The linked page laments that so much data may be lost or overlooked and gives a history of the recording industry in India, along with some interesting historical scans. Perhaps, thanks to the efforts of xiphophilos, Grondzero and others, who take the time and trouble to enter the non-Latin text portions from the labels and sleeves, some Indian record collectors might find 45worlds, join the efforts here, and enrich the data with interesting additions from their own collections. Three cheers!



slholzer 1st Aug 2016		Three cheers to Grondzero and xiphophilos for documenting this record that would otherwise be largely a mystery to most of us in a thorough and enlightening way. It was a chore to put the titles in in native script, but to add a translation to English text was really going the extra mile. It is heartening to know that world artists are getting the attention they deserve on the Internet and that dedicated researchers can help us find the information we want.



xiphophilos 28th Jul 2016		Discography of Kanan Devi's recordings (কানন দেবী or Kanana Debi is the Bengali version of her last name): http://www.kanandevi.com/discography.php. A list of the songs she sings in "Vidyapati" (here dated to 1938!): http://www.kanandevi.com/bidyapati01.php A summary of the film plot can be found here: http://www.kanandevi.com/bidhyapatisys.php



whitewhale1965 28th Jul 2016		Wikipedia says the film is from 1937.

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Kanan Debi - मौछ। And छेभात्र जान / সীতার গান (Sita's Song) - Columbia - India - VE. 2562 (1949)

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