(b Benares [now Varanasi], 1907; d Delhi, 1976). North Indian vocalist. She came from a family of hereditary professional female musicians of Benares; her grandmother Maina Bai and her aunt Rajeshwari Bai were esteemed vocalists. She received her initial training in the typical genres of the Benares region of eastern Uttar Pradesh – thumrī, tappā, tarānā, dādrā, pūrbī, holī, caitī, kajrī – under Pandit Siyaji Maharaj. She later studied under other distinguished musicians including Pandit Bade Ramdasji of Benares (her most influential guru), Ustad Inayet Khan of Lahore and Khan Sahib Rajab Ali Khan of Gwalior. Orphaned in infancy and abandoned by her aunt in adolescence, she spent a number of years in poverty. For a time she worked in Bombay for a film company as ‘Usha Cinetone's Miss Siddheswari’. She eventually transcended her misfortunes and developed a profoundly emotive style which reflected the characteristics of the Benares gharānā.
At the First Congress Session's music conference in Bombay, Ustad Faiyaz Khan called Devi the queen of thumrī. Although she specialized in the Benares semi-classical repertory, she was also a respected khayāl singer, sometimes evoking dhrupad. She also performed in London, Rome and Kabul and in Nepal.
She had two daughters, Shanta and Savita, whom she trained as musicians. In the early 1960s she was hired by the Bharatiya Kala Kendra in Delhi to teach thumrī, and was subsequently awarded a fellowship by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. She received the Padma Shri award from the Government of India in 1966 and in 1973 the honorary DLitt from the Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta, and subsequently the Viswa Bharati University's highest award, the Desikottam.
L. Garg: ‘Siddheswari Devi’, Hamāre sangīt ratna [Our music jewels] (Hathras, 1957, 3/1983)
Smt. Siddheswari Devi: Light Classical Music, HMV EALP 1436 (1987)
A.D. Sharma: Musicians of India: Past and Present (Calcutta, 1993)
M. Kinnear: The Gramophone Company's First Indian Recordings (Bombay, 1994)
AMELIA DUTTA