Kanika Bandyopadhyay
| Kanika Banerjee কণিকা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় |
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Kanika Banerjee
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| Born |
Anima Mukherjee October 12, 1924 Sonamukhi, Bankura district, Bengal Province, British India |
| Died | April 5, 2000 (aged 75) Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Other names | Mohar |
| Occupation | vocalist |
| Years active | 1943–2000 |
| Known for | Rabindra Sangeet singer |
Kanika Banerjee (October 12, 1924 – April 5, 2000) was an Indian Rabindra Sangeet singer.
Born on October 12, 1924 at Sonamukhi in Bankura district, Kanika joined Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan in West Bengal, India. She was trained in both classical and Rabindrasangeet in Sangeet Bhavana (School of Music) at Santiniketan. Shantiniketan (which literally means Abode of Peace) was built on the model of an Ashram (educational hermitage). For this reason, Kanika is also occasionally referred to as Ashram Kanya or 'girl of the Ashram'. She was fortunate to take music lessons from none other than Rabindranath Tagore. It was Tagore who christened her Kanika (her original name being Anima), also the name of one of his books on Poetry. Her other gurus were Dinendra Nath Tagore, Sailajaranjan Majumdar, Indira Devi Chowdhurani and Santidev Ghosh. She participated in dance-dramas directed by Rabindranath and toured all over India as a member of his cultural troupe.
Kanika Bandyopadhyay joined Sangeet Bhavana as a teacher and in due course became Head of the Department of Rabindrasangeet and later its Principal. She was made Professor Emeritus of Visva-Bharati.
Since 1943, Kanika had been a regular artiste of the Calcutta station of All India Radio and gave performances at the national level in the musical programmes arranged by other stations as honoured artiste. Her gramophone records came out even in the lifetime of the Poet (Tagore) and there are over 300 gramophone discs to her credit. She was also a singer of Bhajans, Nazrulgeeti (songs by Kazi Nazrul Islam) and Atulprasad's songs. However the first song recorded by her was neither a Tagore song nor a Nazrul Geeti but a Bengali Adhunik song composed by Niharbindu Sen.
Kanika was invited to sing by programme organizers not only in India but also in Europe and America and was acclaimed everywhere for her unique rendering of the subtle nuances of emotions expressed in Rabindranath' s lyrical compositions. She has written three books on this genre. Her life has been well documented on film by noted film directors. She was associated with the Elmhirst Institute of Community Studies during the last years of her life.
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