Ramashreya Jha 'Ramrang'

Pandit Ramashreya Jha 'Ram Rang' was a eminent vocalist, composer and Guru of Hindustani Art music. He was born on 11th August 1928, in Darbhanga in Bihar. He began learning music with his father Sukhdev Jha and uncle Madhusudan Jha. He received extensive training under Pandit Bholanath Bhatt at Allahabad for almost 25 years. He also learnt under Pandit B. N. Thakar and Ustad Habib Khan. Jha Ji spent some 15 years with a drama company in Varanasi. Later he joined Allahabad University as a faculty in 1968. He became Head of the Music department in 1980 and got retired in 1989. His own compositions penned with name 'Ram Rang', along with some traditional compositions are published in an anthology of 5 volumes called 'Abhinava Geetanjali'. In these books, he has described each Raga in depth. His Bandishes include Khayal, Tarana, Chaturang, Tappa, Thumri, etc. He also composed several Bandishes on the episodes from Ramayana. He was awarded with Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (2005). He died in Kolkata due to massive cardiac problem. His major disciples are Kamla Bose, Geeta Banerjee, Shubha Mudgal and Ramshankar Singh. He also taught many Bandishes to Pt. Jitendra Abhisheki, who made them popular in concerts.