First gramophone record in India was made in Kolkata
in 1898. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented a sound machine which he called
phonograph. Hemendra Mohan Bose, an Indian entrepreneur, imported the
phonograph of Edison and made the cylinder record. The records were
popularly known as Bose's record. Rabindranath Tagore recorded the
'Bande Mataram' here in his own voice.
The Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd recorded the first Indian song in
their Beliaghata factory in 1898. There are different opinions about the
recorded song of the first professional singer. The inventor of disc
record, Frederick Gaiesburg of Germany, arrived in Calcutta on 27th
October, 1902 to record the songs of the native singers. His desire was
to send these records to Hanoever, make them into discs and then sell
them in Calcutta. He is said to have gone to a theatre hall on 5th
November, 1902, and recorded the songs of Gaher Jaan.
There is another version according to which the 'Gramophone &
Typewriter Ltd.' recorded the song of Sashi Mukhi on 25 cm. disc in 1902
for the first time. The song was adopted from the play 'Sri Krishna'.
