Girija Devi’s Memoir To Be Released Soon: Rhythm Wagholikar, Sudha Dutta This new biography unearths unknown facts about the celebrated doyen of the Benaras gharana. 11 May 2021, Last Updated at 3:30 pm outlookindia.com 2021-05-11T15:30:58+05:30 Padma Vibhushan Girija Devi, a voice that has enraptured and regaled her admirers all over for over seven decades has a story of personal and professional struggles so dramatic that only a woman of her courage could have lived through it. An internationally acclaimed north Indian classical vocalist praised for elevating the status of light classical music and its forms world over. Her repertoire in the semi-classical genre had few parallels. Along with her most popular musical genre ‘Thumri’, Girija Devi also mastered subgenres like dadra, tappa, chaiti, kajri, hori, chand praband, jhula, sawan and many others that were influenced by regional cultures across the northern belt. Over the past few decades, she had become the only representative of the purab ang gayaki style of singing.