Hindustani classical · 1950s–2010s
Vidushi Jaya Biswas
A senior woman sitarist trained by Ravi Shankar, and a long-serving teacher in Kolkata.
- Instrument
- Sitar
- Gharana
- Maihar (Senia-Maihar) gharanaThrough her training with Ravi Shankar, 1956–1966.
Official website & social links
We have no checked official pages for Vidushi Jaya Biswas yet. Suggest an official link.
Where to start
Begin listening
Duet: Ragas Hem Behag and Misra Khamboj, with Ustad Bahadur Khan (sarod)
His Master's Voice · Internet Archive
Sarod and sitar duet issued by His Master's Voice (ECSD 2512); tabla by Amar Dey.
Sitar: Ragas Jayjaivanti and Piloo (1975 solo LP)
His Master's Voice · His Master's Voice EASD 1406
Her solo LP, issued under the name Joya Biswas; known from a collector's digitisation of the disc rather than an official reissue.
Recordings are embedded from official or authorised channels and never rehosted. Nothing plays on its own, and starting one closes another. Where an editor has added a note, it explains why that recording was chosen — not what happens inside it.
Biography
Life
Jaya Biswas, born Jaya Bose, met Pandit Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi in New Delhi in 1955, after winning the inter-university championship for a second successive year, and chose to study with Ravi Shankar. Her training with him ran from 1956 to 1966. In an All India Radio programme broadcast from Delhi around 1960 he named her among his pramukh shishyas, alongside Uma Shankar Mishra, Gopal Krishna and Satyendev Pawar.
She went on to head the Indian music section of the Calcutta School of Music, a section inaugurated by Ravi Shankar in 1974. Senior musicians interviewed by The Hindu in a feature on the scarcity of women sitarists named her among the players who had made their standing in the field. Her birth date is not established in the sources consulted here and has been left blank.
Musical contribution
What they brought to music
Biswas was trained in the manner Ravi Shankar taught: taleem began with singing, the raga learned as a vocal line before being translated to the strings, with the dhrupad-derived alap unfolding at length before the composition. She has described that method in interviews as central to her own playing and teaching.
Lineage & company
Teachers, students and musical connections
In the documented teaching trees
Where the archive's lineage research places Vidushi Jaya Biswas, and the teaching links recorded around them inside each tree.
Student of Ravi Shankar, 1956–1966.
People
Grouped by the kind of relationship the sources record — who taught this musician, who they taught, family, and the people they played with.
Teachers and gurus
Pandit Ravi ShankarGuruTrained with him from 1956 to 1966; he named her among his pramukh shishyas in an AIR broadcast around 1960.
The Times of India
Collaborators and accompanists
- Ustad Bahadur KhanCollaborator
Recorded a sarod and sitar duet with him for His Master's Voice (ECSD 2512).
Discogs release listing
Community
Memories from the community
Personal recollections, not verified history
These are memories shared by listeners and musicians. They sit apart from the sourced biography above, and an editor reads each one before it appears.
- No memories have been shared yet.
Members can share a memory of Vidushi Jaya Biswas. Sign in or create an account.
Provenance
Sources and image credits
No photograph of this musician is published here yet; we use only images we are permitted to show, with credit.
Continue exploring