Roshan Ara Begum (Urdu: رَوشن آرا بیگم) (1917 – 6 December 1982) was a vocalist belonging to the Kirana gharana (singing style) of Hindustani classical music.
[1] Possessing a rich, mature, and mellifluous voice that could easily lend itself to a wide range of intricate classical music pieces, her singing features a full-throated voice, short and delicate passages of sur, lyricism, romantic appeal, and swift taans.
[1][3] Born in Calcutta in 1917, Roshan Ara Begum visited Lahore during her teens to participate in musical soirées held at the residences of affluent citizens of Chun Peer in Mohalla Peer Gillaanian at Mochi Gate, Lahore, British India (now in Pakistan).
[1] During her occasional visits to the city, she also broadcast songs from the then All India Radio station in Lahore, and her professional name was announced as Bombaywali Roshan Ara Begum.
She had acquired this popular nomenclature because she shifted to Mumbai, then known as Bombay, in the late 1930s, to live near her cousin Abdul Karim Khan, from whom she took lessons in Hindustani classical music for 15 years.
[2] A senior police officer in Bombay and a music lover, Chaudhry Ahmed Khan, approached her with an offer of marriage in 1944.
Although far away from Lahore, the cultural centre of Pakistan, she would travel back and forth to participate in music, radio, and television programmes.