Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Master Madan : the child prodigy

Master Madan (1927-1942), a child prodigy (not to be confused with music composer Madan Mohan), died at the young age of 14 years, sang only a few songs which are everlasting and embedded in perfection. During his lifetime he recorded only 8 songs. Of these, only two Ghazals are available publicly. These are the famous,'Yun Naa Rah Rah Ke Hame Tarsaiye'* and, 'Hairat Se Tak Raha Hai'*. The other six songs are very rarely found, and of great archival value. In this post I present to you, all the 8 songs ever recorded by him.



Master Madan was born on December 28, 1927, in Khanna, a village in Jalandhar district of Punjab. He sang in public for the first time when he was three and a half years old, in a rally arranged by Dharampur Sanatorium. The audience was understandably spell bound. He was given many gold medals right there and then. After that he and his elder brother toured all over India and collected many prizes from the rulers of many princely states. They sang in the famous Harvallabh Mela of Jalandhar city and later in Shimla. Reportedly, in the Shimla Sammelan, many notable singers had also come, but thousands were eager to listen to Master Madan only.

Bhajan - Gori Gori Baiyan :  (Download)








Bhajan - Mori Binati Maano Kaanh Re :  (Download)








Ghazal - Man Ki Man :  (Download)








Bhajan - Chetna Hai Toh Chet Lai :  (Download)








At the age of eight, he was a famous radio singer, singing mainly on Delhi radio station on Alipur road. His final public program took place in Calcutta at age 14. He sang, 'Vinati Suno Mori Avadhpur Ke Basiya' for 90 minutes with such beauty that the public refused to go home. One patron respectfully offered Rs. 500, a princely sum in those days, on his feet. Also 9 gold medals were announced by various patrons to be given to him. In those days, gold medals were really made of gold. He returned to Delhi and kept going to the Delhi radio station for about 3-4 months. Soon he started getting sick. Many remedies were tried but nothing helped.

Punjabi Song - Bagaan Vich Pingan Paiyan :  (Download)








Punjabi Song - Raavii De Parle Kande Ve Mitara :  (Download)








Ghazal - Yun Naa Rah Rah Ke Hame Tarsaiye* :  (Download)








Ghazal - Hairat Se Tak Raha Hai* :  (Download)








In the summer of 1942, he went to Shimla, where his forehead, and joints started to shine unusually. He died on June 5, 1942 suffering a great deal of pain. It was suspected that he died of mercury poisoning. It is believed that a jealous singer gave him mercury in his milk. On his death, Shimla closed down and a huge gathering accompanied him on his last journey.

Comments are welcome.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Guptaji,
kyaa baat hai !!!! yesterday I wrote you about Master Madan, and today all the available songs are here...... I love this voice and wish more and more people should listen, enjoy it and pay homage to the lost treasure.....
-Pramod Kale, Pune.

Voice Artist Vikas Shukla विकासवाणी यूट्यूब चॅनल said...

I was really wonder struck reading about Master Madan. I had heard one of his gazal on "Vividh Bharti LIsteners Group" (a Yahoo Group of Sujoy Chatterji). But I didnt know that he died so early. Thank you for providing such vital information alongwith download facility on your blog. I have given link of your blog to my son also who is also a fan of Hindustani Classical Music.

Kalidasa said...

My jaw dropped reading about Master Madan. Thank you for educating us. I would never have learnt about the master prodigy. Thank you.

indianraga said...

Mine dropped too, when I first came to know about him.

azdak said...

क्‍या बात है, भाई वाह, बहुत खूब..!

महेन said...

mine is still dropped Guptaji. Alas that we lost such a great talent at such a tender age.

Rajati Bakshi said...

aha!!! :) makes one so happy to listen to this....waah ...what a person he must have been!!

Unknown said...

hiiii
Its amazing to get such wonderfull collection , though iam looking these songs for my dad but serioulsy legends like Master Madan are born only onces in lifetime ,Thanks to this blogg

Mir said...

What a rare collection of Master Madan i,m amazed thanks for the downloads.

Anonymous said...

My God. What a service you have done to music lovers. In my childhood, I used to hear of Master Madan's songs with great admiration, when I was a little boy.
Now I am nearing 80 and have been trying to listen to his songs; but always failed. As luck would have it, I found them today. People used to say that only two of his ghazals had survived; but you have proved them wrong and produced the all the songs sung by him. Words fail me to express my gratitude.
With best regards
Rai Batra, London

Unknown said...

Can you confirm whether Master Madan had a sister named Saraswati Devi although she is also referred to as Shanta Devi and she also composed some memorable songs herself.
Kaushik Mohanty

Anonymous said...

i cannot thank u enough for all this i mean i am a huge fan of master Madan's ghazals and i had been looking for them all over thanks to u , no one can express poetry like master madan "hairat se takk raha hai" is a master piece. i am spell bound.

SHAKTI RAJ KACHRU.(DELHI) said...

i had heard these songs before but was un aware of history of this great singer .i am deeply touched by depth of his style and singing capabilities he had attained in young age.May his soul rest in ASTRAL PEACE.
-Thanks for helping nation to know about OUR RICH CULTURAL HERETAGE.
-SHAKTI RAJ KACHRU.(DELHI)

Anonymous said...

WOW...amazing!....HRN (Toronto)

Anonymous said...

It is truly amazing to find all 8 reordings of Master Madan. I have EP with his 2 ghazals and was looking to get it transferred to CD, little did I know that we had more recordings.
It is sad and brings tears to even think about somebody poisoning a child bestowed with God's gift. I had heard that it was somebody who was threatened by Master Madan's popularity. It makes one wonder about the complexity of human mind. How can anybody do such a lowly act. I am positive, he/she must have paid for this in his/her life time.

simran kachru (jammu) said...

i am indebted for this post. it has connected me to my most cherished memories.....thanks!

Anonymous said...

yarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr kamal hai buss....yehi keh sakta hon
from
syed shabbar abbas live in lahore pakistan.
silentmighty2001@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Thanx Rakesh for this invaluable link-Vinod

Anonymous said...

Its great to hear the voice of Master Madan the child prodigy. Its people like you who remind us and bring memories of yesteryears and keep it alive even now
Ganapathi
nalinigana@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

What a great misfortune God nipped this bud so tender. God loves those who die young. Great Voice.

G.R.Srinivasa

Anonymous said...

Great tribute to a great voice.
Thanks for your service.
Ujwal Ritwik
Kuwait

Anonymous said...

I've got no words in ma vocabulory to describe his personality.
Thanx for your service.
S.R. YELBURGI.

Anonymous said...

I've got no words in ma vocabulory to describe The Great Master Madan's personality.......

Anonymous said...

simply mesmerizing !

Anonymous said...

that jealous singer was Kundal lal(KL) Sehgal

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Anonymous said...

I am so much thankfull to you for giving us such a magical voice and we thought we have lost it.what a spirited voice at this young age .I only heard one of his ghazal (youn na reh reh kar)thank you very much for giving us some of the details of his childhood.

7 dec,2012
Canada

Anonymous said...

About the profile of Master Madan: A child prodigy; please log on http://www.apnaorg.com/research-papers/master-madan/

satishchopra@rediffmail.com

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