Sharan Rani Backliwal


Sharan Rani was an Indian classical sarod player and music scholar.
Her private collection of 379 musical instruments ranging from the 15th to the 19th century is now part of the "Sharan Rani Backliwal Gallery of Musical Instruments" at the National Museum, New Delhi.

Early life and training

She was born Sharan Rani Mathur in the walled city of Old Delhi to a conservative Hindu family of well-known businessmen and educationists. As a young girl, Sharan Rani learned to play the sarod from the master musicians Allauddin Khan and his son Ali Akbar Khan.
Backliwal began her musical career in spite of immense familial opposition. During this period in Indian history, a career as a musician was seen as something for gharanas or was the profession of nautch girls or baijis, not something appropriate for the daughter of a respectable, non-musician family. She also learned the Kathak form of classical Indian dance from Achhan Maharaj and Manipuri dance from Nabha Kumar Sinha. In 1953, she did her M.A from Delhi University, and studied at Indraprastha College for Women.

Musical career

From the late 1930s, Sharan Rani presented her sarod recitals on the concert stage in India for over seven decades. She was one of the very first to record for UNESCO and to release musical recordings with major record companies in the United States, Britain and France. According to Jawaharlal Nehru, she was the "Cultural Ambassador of India"
Concerned that the rich Dhrupad tradition was fading away, some of her solo recitals were accompanied by both Tabla and Pakhawaj.
Rani was one of the earliest artists of All India Radio and Doordarshan.

Musical authorship and teaching

Backliwal also wrote a history of the sarod, titled The Divine Sarod: Its Origin, Antiquity and Development, which was released in 1992, by K. R. Narayanan, the then Vice President of India. A second edition of The Divine Sarod was released in 2008 by I. K. Gujral, former Prime Minister of India. She also wrote a number of articles on music.
Backliwal taught music through the Guru–shishya tradition and never took any fees from her students. Many students also lived in her house as her resident-disciples for several years, free of charge.
Backliwal donated to the National Museum, New Delhi varieties of instruments from different States of India, from different 'Gharanas' of music, covering different time periods, allowing for a methodical comparative and developmental study. These were donated in three linked donations in 1980, 1982 and 2002. These instruments are housed in a permanent gallery, called the 'Sharan Rani Backliwal Gallery of Musical Instruments', in the National Museum, New Delhi, inaugurated and dedicated to the nation in 1980 by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, who called it a 'collection of rare musical instruments of national importance.'

Musical Instruments Collection

The collection includes instruments that represent various gharanas and regions spanning from the 15th to the 19th century. These are as follows:
In 1960, she married Sultan Singh Backliwal who belonged to a prominent Digamber Jain business family of Delhi. In 1974, they had a daughter, Radhika Narain. After battling cancer for a few years, she died on 8 April 2008, a day before her 79th birthday.

Awards and honours

In 2004, the government of India honoured select artists by conferring upon them the title of 'National Artiste'. Sharan Rani was the only woman instrumentalist to receive this title.
Other awards and honours she received include: