Roshan Ara Begum

Roshan Ara Begum (born 1917) is an Hindustani classical vocalist. a vocalist of Kirana Gharana of Hindustani Khayal music. She is also known for the honorific title Malika-e-Mauseeqi (The Queen of Music) in India and Pakistan.

Born in Calcutta in 1917, she was the daughter of Abdul Haq Khan (cousin of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan of the Kirana gharana) and Chanda Begum.

During her occasional visits to Lahore, she also broadcasts songs from the then All India Radio station in Lahore and her professional name was announced as Bombaywali Roshan Ara Begum. She had acquired this popular nomenclature because she shifted to Mumbai, then known as Bombay, in the late 1930s, to live near Abdul Karim Khan, from whom she took lessons in Hindustani classical music for 15 years.

She married Chaudhry Ahmed Khan in 1944 and moved to Pakistan after Partition, where she became one of the founding members of the All Pakistan Music Conference in 1959. She influenced a number of classical musicians such as Bade Fateh Ali Khan, Amanat Ali Khan of Patiala Gharana and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan of Sham Chaurasia Gharana.