Best of Raj Begum

Raj Begum in 2011 (at 84)

Raj Begum continues to have a special aura among the singers of Kashmir.

It is because she had a high-pitch, deep-drilling, haunting voice, that

touches the timeless and sorrowful plateau of a listener’s psyche. Sorrow,

more than joy, touches the deepest chords of human soul. There were

and are other good singers but none has the sorrowful, almost mournful

voice that Raj Begum had.

Those of you have read my article Meeting Raj Begum know that I was

able to get thirty songs of Raj Begum in 1988 with considerable difficulty,

as they were not available commercially. I pleaded with Director of Radio

Kashmir in 2011 to release them to public as they were a public treasure

but that was not of any avail. Raj Begum’s songs started coming on You

Tube just a few years ago, but they are only few.

In early 90’s I released a few of Raj Begum’s songs to KP Network,

if that is the correct name. Now I have decided to release twenty-one

of the thirty-one songs of Raj Begum that I possess. It is being done

through Google Drive. But that only creates listings alphabetically and

not according to the desired order in which its author would like to

publish them, according to the quality of the songs.

In my, and that of the many Kashmiri music professionals’ estimation,

following are the six greatest songs sung by Raj Begum:

I am sorry that I do not have “ kyah roze pardon chaay chaaye

soze-jigar myon” song. The “rum ghayam sheeshas” song has

been obtained through Youtube, it is given after the Google Drive

listing.

As stated earlier, as the Google Drive listing is not according to

the merit of the song, therefore, I am suggesting that the listeners

use the following hierarchy:

The rest of the songs can be heard in any order.

The Google Drive Listing link is the following:

Rum Ghayam Sheeshas begur gav baana myon:

https://youtu.be/IyNrYhQfz0g

Suffern, New York, Feb. 27, 2021

maharaj.kaul@yahoo.com