Artist : Tara Devi

Tara Devi was born to Krishna Bahadur and Radha Devi on January 15, 1946 at Indra Chowk, Kathmandu. Since her early says, she started showing her talent in singing. When she was five years old she went to Radio Nepal with the veteran artist Bhairav Bahadur Thapa. When she did sing, everyone who heard her were extremely impressed . Right from an early age, she was able to captivate people's attention with her voice. During that period she sang many songs on baal program broadcasted regularly on Radio Nepal.
Since her early days, Tara Devi was appreciated by many. Together with her studies she carried on with her music. After the School Leaving Certificate, she did Bachelors in Music. During the initial days she used to earn Rs 5 for singing one song at Radio Nepal and as time passed she started earning Rs. 100 for each song she sang. With this progress, she was more than happy. As time passed, she was able to get recognition in the music circles as well as the general public. During that period she was also appointed as a Khardar at Radio Nepal. Gradually, she held the position of Nayab Subba and Upasachib and spent 30 years of her career there. It was then that she recorded numerous songs -- be it patriotic numbers, bhajan, modern or even folk numbers. With all of this she was able to contribute her songs to the music loving fans of Nepal. Many of her songs speak about her own country...about realities of life.
Tara Devi was in the music scene for more than 50 years and during this time she was able to establish herself as a true daughter of Nepal. As time passed, she was bestowed with various awards 'Indra Laxmi' and then followed 'Jagadamana', 'Chinnalata', 'Maina' among many others. Not forgetting to mention, she has also been the recipient of 'Gorkha Dakchin Bahu' and 'Mahendra Ratna'.
When Tara Devi was bestowed with an honor Swor Samragi, she had reached the epitome of popularity in Nepal as an artist and as a versatile singer. She got married to pilot Shiva Bahadur Shrestha in 1966. Theirs was a love marriage! Later, she gave birth to two sons -- Sashi and Ravi and a daughter Charu. Sashi expired at a young age due to cancer. Due to this, she went into depression and it had not even been four years when another tragedy struck her life. Her husband died in a plane crash and this added more grief. After this tragedy, she became physically unfit and later was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease . Due to this, she stopped singing further and her new songs were hardly heard. On January 23, 2006 she died a peaceful death.