Biva Sengupta

Biva Sengupta was born on 12 May 1932 in Agartala, Tripura. Obituaries in Millennium Post, Aaro Ananda and Sangbad Pratidin give the date and place. Her family was culturally minded and Tripura itself had deep ties to Rabindranath Tagore.

A profile written by Pritam Chakraborty for the Gaanghawr channel, drawing on the 2019 documentary about her, says music came into the home mainly from her mother's side. She grew up hearing her mother hum Shyama Sangeet and her paternal aunt sing the songs of the folk poet Mukunda Das. The house also breathed the spirit of the Swadeshi movement: her elder brother Debaprasad Sengupta was a member of the revolutionary Anushilan Samiti.

Her first music teacher was Krishnajit Debbarman, who had trained with Sachin Dev Burman and Bhismadev Chattopadhyay. Aaro Ananda notes that she received training in classical music in Agartala before moving to Kolkata.

Sengupta moved permanently to Kolkata in 1959 and began studying Rabindra Sangeet with the respected trainer Maya Sen. The Gaanghawr profile dates the start of those lessons to 1961, Tagore's birth centenary year. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in music from Rabindra Bharati University.

While she was an MA student, Maya Sen took her to the home of Debabrata Biswas, the legendary Rabindra Sangeet singer known as George Biswas. She sang "Tumi je amare chao" for him. Biswas was impressed and made her aware of the finer details of presenting Tagore's songs, and she went on to learn from him closely for a long time. Learning "Mor hridayer gopon bijon ghore" from him, according to the Gaanghawr profile, taught her that Tagore's songs live deep in the mind rather than being something recited like a lecture.

Sengupta began her musical career in the 1960s, in the era of Suchitra Mitra, Kanika Bandyopadhyay and Nilima Sen, but she chose not to compete for fame. Sangbad Pratidin and Aaro Ananda note that radio, television and record labels did not draw her as much as teaching did, so her renown came later than that of her contemporaries.

Her recordings of "Prabhu amar priyo amar" and "Purano janiya cheyo na" became listener favourites, and in 1970 she took part in the HMV musical feature "Jay din shrabondin jay". She especially loved Tagore's songs of the rains and of spring. The song most associated with her is "Basanti he bhubanamohini"; others include "Krishnakoli ami tarei boli", "Esechhile tobu aso nai", "Ami hethay thaki shudhu", "Amar je din bhese gechhe", "Amar khela jokhon", "Chiro sokha chhero na", "Klanti amar khoma koro probhu", "Ami kan pete roi" and "Tobu mone rekho".

ETV Bharat lists her albums and compilations as Chiro Sokha, Eka Robi Thakur (volume 10) and the monsoon collection Jhorojhoro Borishe. She was also among the singers on Rabindranather Barshar Gaan, and she appeared at Bangla Sangeet Mela programmes over the years.

Teaching Tagore's songs was, in the words of Aaro Ananda, the vow of her life for several decades. The singer Sagar Sen handed her responsibility for classes at his institution Rabirashmi, where she taught regularly for many years, and she also ran her own institution, Amitayan.

She trained many students and kept close ties with the next generation of Rabindra Sangeet singers. Students recalled that even in old age, once they sat her down at a harmonium, she would sing song after song from memory without a notebook. Each year she faithfully observed the birth anniversary of her guru Debabrata Biswas, once leading a tribute programme with her students at Rabindra Sadan, and invited singers such as Srikanto Acharya to perform at those tributes.

Sengupta was admired for singing with an open throat, clear diction and a rare ability to make the words of a song vivid to the listener. The Report described her style as presenting songs almost as if she were narrating them directly to the audience. Aaro Ananda wrote that from Maya Sen and Debabrata Biswas she inherited both fidelity to the written notation and a fluent, calm, dignified way of singing.

She cared little for fame. Alok Raychowdhury said that publicity, name and fame never troubled her, and that she was more interested in carefully preparing her students. Manomay Bhattacharya marvelled at how precise her use of pitch and the clarity of her tappa ornaments remained in old age.

Sengupta lived in Kolkata from 1959 until her death. Fellow singers described her as deeply affectionate. Shrabani Sen called her "Bibhamasi" and recalled that she loved Sen's family, visited their home often and celebrated the successes of people close to her as if they were her own. Manomay Bhattacharya said she loved him like her own child.

In her last years she had eye problems and some hearing loss and endured the grief of losing people close to her, but continued to sing. Shrabani Sen said she was generally healthy and active but occasionally needed blood transfusions, possibly because of low haemoglobin. Details of a spouse or children were not made public in the obituaries.

Sengupta is remembered as one of the last direct disciples of Debabrata Biswas and as a quiet keeper of the Rabindra Sangeet tradition who passed it on to generations of students through Rabirashmi and Amitayan. ETV Bharat wrote that Bengali music lost not only an artist but an important inheritor of Rabindra Sangeet.

Her late-life rediscovery, through documentaries, Doordarshan interviews and widely shared videos of her singing in her nineties, made her an example of lifelong devotion to music. Her songs, her students and her long practice remain her legacy.

Sengupta did not seek awards, and no major state honour is recorded in the obituaries. Recognition came in her final decade: the 2019 documentary about her was screened at the Kolkata International Film Festival; DD Bangla featured her in the interview programme Kathay Kathay in 2022 and in its Aamar Somoy documentary series in 2026; Doordarshan Tripura broadcast an exclusive interview in 2024; the Bharatiya Sangeet Academy organised a Biva Sengupta Janmotsav on her 93rd birthday on 12 May 2025; and on 29 September 2026 the cultural organisation Lokbharati felicitated her at her home.

Bibha Sengupta: Rabindra Sangeet Maestro (2019) is a documentary in which she sings eight songs, including "Krishnakoli ami tarei boli" and "Basanti he bhubanamohini", and reminisces about Maya Sen and Debabrata Biswas. It was screened at the Kolkata International Film Festival in November 2019.

Other appearances include DD Bangla's Kathay Kathay (24 November 2022, interviewer Swapan Shome), an exclusive interview on Doordarshan Tripura (2024), Jana O Jana Live with Alok Raychowdhury on Naba Robi Kiron (2025), a long interview with the Bengali Music Directory (2025) and DD Bangla's Aamar Somoy documentary, episode 1 (2026).

Sengupta had been receiving treatment for some time at a private hospital in Kolkata for age-related ailments. She died there on the morning of Tuesday, 6 October 2026, at about 7 a.m. according to Millennium Post and Sangbad Pratidin, or about 7:30 a.m. according to Ei Samay, aged 94. Shrabani Sen confirmed the death.

Only a week earlier, on 29 September, Lokbharati had honoured her at home, and Alok Raychowdhury said she had been spontaneous, smiling and full of stories. Her body was taken to Rabindra Sadan, where her students and admirers paid tribute through songs. Singers including Shrabani Sen, Alok Raychowdhury, Manomay Bhattacharya and Srikanto Acharya expressed their grief.