Malika Pukhraj—-Jammu Wali!

The gifted singer whose musical voice echoed the earthly sounds of melody and became synonym with Dogra ethos, Malika Pukhraj (Jammu Wali), will always remain inextricable part of modern Dogra lore as well as the shared legacy of the sub-continent.

  Born in 1912, in village Mirpur near Akhnoor, Jammu, Malika Pukhraj needs no introduction! Her journey from Akhnoor to Kanak Mandi, Jammu to Lahore is itself very interesting! Kashmir Rechords is reproducing two  of her rarest  photographs to bring home the fact that she is, what she used to sing, “ Abhi to Mein Jawan Hoon’’— both in everyone’s thoughts and pictures”.

  Jammu Wali Malika Pukhraj had an opportunity  to sing during the coronation ceremony of Maharaja Hari Singh as she was bestowed with the honour of being a court singer at the young age of nine. However, her childish act (laughing in Maharaja’s darbar) was the turning point in her life, as the same was viewed as contempt, recalls noted journalist, Lalit Gupta in one of his writeups.

Journey from Jammu to Lahore

According to Gupta,  due to  some court intrigues, she had to leave Jammu for good at a very young age. At Lahore, she associated herself with All India Radio, Lahore, where she was every time addressed as “Malika Pukhraj Jammu Wali’’. The pictures produced by Kashmir Rechords dates back to January 1940. Pukhraj must have been 28 at that time!

   After partition, Malika Pukhraj lived in old Lahore City where she was  married to  Shabbir Husain Shah, a Government Officer. She had six children.  He daughter– Tahira Syed, having learnt singing under her mother’s strict discipline, also turned out to be a well-known Pakistani singer. Continuing in her style, Tahira  re-sung many of her mother’s famous songs, including her Dogri songs.

   Malika Pukhraj had visited Jammu for the last time in 1988 along with her daughter Tahira.

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All India Radio’s Legend of Voice

In recognition of her contribution to music, she received Pakistan’s Presidential Pride of Performance Award in 1980. But before that, in 1977, All India Radio had awarded her with the ‘Legend of Voice’ award.

   Malika Pukhraj died at Islamabad on February 4, 2004, at the age of 90, but her Dogri songs, “nazm” recitations and ghazal renditions live on. She is remembered in the Jammu as a cultural icon and Lahore is still nostalgic with the resonance of her gayaki.

 On the top of it—- She was always addressed as “Malika Pukhraj—-Jammu Wali!’’