Rukmani Devi

Daisy Rasammah Daniels, known popularly as Rukmani Devi (15 January 1923 – 28 October 1978: රුක්මණී දේවී) was a Sri Lankan film actress and singer who was often acclaimed as "The Nightingale of Sri Lanka".

She made it to the silver screen via the stage and had acted in close to 100 films at the time of her death.

Having an equal passion for singing as well as a melodious voice, she was Sri Lanka's foremost female singer in the gramophone era.

Rukmani Devi was born as Daisy Rasammah Daniels to a Tamil Colombo Chetty Christian family on January 15, 1923, at Ramboda in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka.

Second, in a family of five, her father, John Daniel, worked on a plantation, and her mother, Helen Rose, was a teacher.

She grew up in Colombo and had her early education at St. Matthew's School and then moved on to St. Clare's School, Wellawatte.

She was married to veteran dramatist, actor, and singer Eddie Jayamanne, whom she fell in love with as a result of her close association with him when performing in dramas produced by "Minerva Dramatic Club," founded by B. A. W. Jayamanne.

They lived at "Jaya Ruk," at Angurukaramulla, Negombo.

As a little girl, Daniels showed an inborn talent to sing and dance.

At the age of seven, she was picked to sing Christmas carols.

Impressed with her ability to sing, dance, and also act, she was selected to perform a main role in a Christmas play, 'The Shoemaker's Wife'.

The stage play was trained and presented by St. Clare's School, Wellawatte.

Watching her play this role much enthusiastically, Walter Abeysinghe, a drama producer, sought permission from her father to invite her to play the lead role of 'Sita' in his drama 'Ramayanaya.' Thus, in 1935, at the age of just 12 years, she performed in this stage play, presented by the 'Sinhala Natya Sabha'.

This marked the beginning of an illustrious career that would span over four decades.

As her performances were highly appreciated by the packed audience, well-known dramatist Dick Dias chose her for two of his stage plays, "Jana Kiharanaya" and "Mayawathie".

She was now flooded with stage dramas, as she became Mayawathi in Charles Dias' 'Mayawathi', Juliet in a Sinhala adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, playing the lead female role in all of them.

She was introduced to H. W. Rupasinghe one day in October 1938 by Gunaratne.

Rupasinghe, who saw Rukmani's singing prowess, chose her for the first album, which was launched by Master His Voice No. 9300.

With her first audio recording of the famous song "Siri Buddhagaya Vihare" with Master in 1938 at the age of 15, she captured the hearts of the masses, and she shaped her career from that of an actress to that of an actress turned singer.

This song was recorded for the 78 rpm (gramophone) record label HMV with the number N-9300 and issued in 1939 by Cargills Ltd., local agents for HMV.

Her unique voice attracted many music directors as her singing career moved from the stage to the silver screen.

Joining Rupasinghe Master's band as a regular singer, she faced three challenges at the time.

That is, she had not studied Hindustani classical music properly and had to compete with renowned singers of that year such as Lakshmi Bai, Annie Boteju, and Susila Jayasinghe.

The third was the language challenge.

She did not know how to read or write Sinhala, and she used to write it all down in English.

Due to the vocal training given by Rupasinghe Master through those songs, she soon became a simple classical singer as well as the most popular young singer on the His Masters Voice record company.

During 1938–45, she recorded 44 songs for HMV Records.

Rukmani sang almost all the Sinhala songs composed in Hindi and Vanga classical songs sung by Kumari Jutika Roy, then popularly known as "Bhajan Songstress" in India.

It was also around this time that her name underwent a change from Daisy Daniels to the well-known 'Rukmani Devi'.

There are two schools of thought as to how the name "Rukmani Devi" originated.

According to one school, the late H. W. Rupasinghe maestro created the name, while others believe that Jayantha Weerasekara and Michael Sannas Liyanage, who are in their 90s, created it.

Entering the stage, Rukmani had the opportunity to perform in Noorthi dramas such as Janakiharanaya, Rohini and Mayawathi.

Rukmani performed her singing career as a simple singer on Sri Lankan radio in the mid-1940s.

Gabriel Gunaratne, who was in charge of recording songs at the then His Master's Voice (HMV) Gramophone Records Company, was the permanent music director of the company.

Since 1940, B. A. W. Jayamanne, founder of "Minerva Dramatic Club" of Negombo has taken Rukmani to perform remarkable roles in his dramas, such as 'Apparition', 'Broken Promise', 'Changing Fate, 'Defeated Aim', 'Evasive Denial', 'Fanatic Faith', 'Grisly Guardian', 'Hasty Decision', and lastly, 'Irangani'.

The above-mentioned plays followed the English alphabet.

The popular play 'Broken Promise' (Kadawunu Poronduwa) was adapted into a film by B. A. W. Jayamanne.

This was the first Sinhala film, Kadawunu Poronduwa, screened on January 21, 1947.

Rukmani Devi, who also began her film career through the role of 'Ranjani' in this film, also became the first local cinema actress.

After her death, she was awarded the Sarasaviya 'Rana Thisara'- Life Time Achievement Award at the 1979 Sarasaviya Awards Festival.