India
India known as the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by area and with more than 1.3 billion people, it is the second most populous country as well as the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia; the Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE. In the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, Buddhism and Jainism arose. Early political consolidations took place under the Gupta empires. In the medieval era, Zoroastrianism and Islam arrived, Sikhism emerged, all adding to the region's diverse culture.
Much of the north fell to the Delhi Sultanate. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal Empire. In the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, in the mid-19th under British Crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance and led to India's independence in 1947. In 2017, the Indian economy was the world's sixth largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption and inadequate public healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the second largest standing army in the world and ranks fifth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal republic governed under a parliamentary system and consists of 29 states and 7 union territories.
A pluralistic and multi-ethnic society, it is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindush, equivalent to the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the historical local appellation for the Indus River; the ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as "The people of the Indus". The geographical term Bharat, recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations, it is a modernisation of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which traditionally referred to the Indian subcontinent and gained increasing currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India. Hindustan is a Middle Persian name for India, it was introduced into India by the Mughals and used since then. Its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety; the name may refer to either the northern part of India or the entire country.
The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago. Nearly contemporaneous human rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh. After 6500 BCE, evidence for domestication of food crops and animals, construction of permanent structures, storage of agricultural surplus, appeared in Mehrgarh and other sites in what is now Balochistan; these developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, the first urban culture in South Asia, which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in what is now Pakistan and western India. Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Kalibangan, relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilization engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade. During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic cultures to the Iron Age ones; the Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism, were composed during this period, historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.
Most historians consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west. The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period. On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation. In South India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period, as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, craft traditions. In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas; the emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic religious movements, two of which became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence during the life of Mahavira.
Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle
Bhimsen Joshi
Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi was a legendary Indian vocalist from Karnataka in the Hindustani classical tradition. He is known for the khayal form of singing, as well as for his popular renditions of devotional music. In 1998, he was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour conferred by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music and Drama. Subsequently, he received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, in 2009. Pt. Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi was born in a Deshastha Madhwa Brahmin family in a town called Ron, Karnataka, in the Gadag district of present-day Karnataka state on 4 February 1922 to Gururaj Joshi and Ramabai, a home-maker. Bhimsen was the eldest among 16 siblings, he was raised by his stepmother. As a child, Bhimsen was fascinated with music and musical instruments like the harmonium and tanpura and would follow processions accompanied by music bands; this exercise tired him and he would curl up somewhere and sleep, forcing his parents to go to the police after efforts to trace him failed.
Fed up, his father Gururajacharya Joshi came up with the solution, writing "son of teacher Joshi" on Bhimsen's shirts. This worked and those who found the boy sleeping would safely deposit him back to his house, his first music teacher was Channappa of Kurtakoti, who had trained with the veteran singer Inayat Khan. After learning Ragas Bhairav and Bhimpalasi, the one and only unique vigorous style of rendering he developed along with advanced trainings by other teachers is attributed to the basic training he received from Channappa. Bhimsen Joshi next went to Pandit Shyamacharya Joshi, who hailed from Bagalkot and was a priest and classical singer. Pandit Shyamacharya taught him to sing as well as play the harmonium. Shree Shamacharya Joshi was a descendant of Great Haridasa Shree Mahipati Dasaru; as revealed by Shree Shyamacharya Joshi himself when he was alive, it was a turning point in Bhimsen Joshi's life that Shree Shyamacharya Joshi went to Bombay for recording his songs by HMV where Shree Bhimsen Joshi accompanied him and due to ill health Shree Shyamacharya Joshi returned to Bagalkot after recording few songs and asked Shree Bhimsen Joshi to render rest of the songs which Shree Bhimsen Joshi did and this proved to be a major breakthrough for Shree Bhimsen Joshi in the initial stage of his career.
Joshi heard a recording of Abdul Karim Khan's Thumri "Piya Bin Nahi Aavat Chain" in Raga Jhinjhoti when he was a child, which inspired him to become a musician. During this time, he heard Pandit Sawai Gandharva at a performance in Kundgol. In 1933, the 11-year-old Joshi left Dharwad for Bijapur to learn music. With the help of money lent by his co-passengers in the train, Bhimsen reached Dharwad first and went to Pune, he moved to Gwalior and got into Madhava Music School, a school run by Maharajas of Gwalior, with the help of famous sarod player Hafiz Ali Khan. He travelled for three years around North India, including in Delhi, Gwalior and Rampur, trying to find a good guru, his father succeeded in tracking him down in Jalandar and brought young Bhimsen back home. In 1936, Sawai Gandharva, a native of Dharwad, agreed to be his guru. Joshi stayed at his house in the guru-shishya tradition. Joshi continued his training with Sawai Gandharva Joshi first performed live in 1941 at the age of 19, his debut album, containing a few devotional songs in Marathi and Hindi, was released by HMV the next year in 1942.
Joshi moved to Mumbai in 1943 and worked as a radio artist. His performance at a concert in 1946 to celebrate his guru Sawai Gandharva's 60th birthday won him accolades both from the audience and his guru. Joshi's performances have been acknowledged by music critics such as S. N. Chandrashekhar of the Deccan Herald to be marked by spontaneity, accurate notes, dizzyingly-paced taans which make use of his exceptional voice training, a mastery over rhythm; the Hindu, in an article written after he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, said: Bhimsen Joshi was the wanderer, engendering brilliant phrases and tans more intuitively than through deliberation. Joshi employed the use of sargam and tihaais, sang traditional compositions of the Kirana gharana, his music injected surprising and sudden turns of phrase, for example through the unexpected use of boltaans. Over the years, his repertoire tended to favour a small number of complex and serious ragas; some of Joshi's more popular ragas include Shuddha Kalyan, Miyan Ki Todi, Puriya Dhanashri, Bhimpalasi and Ramkali.
He was a purist who has not dabbled in experimental forms of music, except for a series of Jugalbandi recordings with the Carnatic singer M. Balamuralikrishna. Joshi's singing has been influenced including Smt. Kesarbai Kerkar, Begum Akhtar and Ustad Amir Khan. Joshi assimilated into his own singing various elements that he liked in different musical styles and Gharanas. In devotional music, Joshi was most acclaimed for his Hindi and Marathi Bhajan singing, he has recorded bhakti songs in Marathi, Dasavani. Pt. Bhimsen Joshi was recognised in India due to his performance in the Mile Sur Mera Tumhara music video, which begins with him; the video was created for the purpose of national integration in India, highlights the diversity of Indian culture. Pt. Bhimsen Joshi was a part of Jana Gana Mana produced by A. R. Rahman on the occasion of the 50th year of Indian Republic. Joshi sang for several f
Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India. It was set up by the Indian education ministry on 31 May 1952 and became functional the following year, with the appointment of its first chairman, Dr. P. V. Rajamannar. Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, inaugurated it on 28 January 1953 in a special function held in the Parliament House; the academy's Fellowship and Award are considered prestigious. The academy functions as the apex body of the performing arts in the country to preserve and promote the vast cultural heritage of India expressed in music and drama, it works with governments and art academies in states and territories of the country. SNA established several institutions over the years: Manipur Dance Academy, Imphal Sattriya Centre Kathak Kendra, New Delhi in 1964 Ravindra RangshalaCenters: Centre for Kutiyattam, Thiruvananthapuram, a national projects in the support of Kuttiyattam Chhau Centre, Baripada/ Jamshedpur Northeast CentreIn addition, the Akademi Subsidizes the work of institutions engaged in teaching, performing or promoting music, dance, or theatre Gives grants to aid research and publishing in the performing arts Organises and subsidises seminars and conferences of subject specialists Documents and records the performing arts for its audio-visual archive Renders advice and assistance to the government of India in the task of formulating and implementing policies and programmes in the field Carries a part of the responsibilities of the state for fostering cultural contacts between regions in the country, as well as between India and the world Organises its annual festival of music and theatre in NCT Delhi.
The academy offers the following facilities. The academy's audio-visual archive has several audio/video tapes and films, it is the largest archive of its kind in the country and is extensively drawn upon for research on the performing arts of India. The academy maintains a reference library consisting of about 22,000 books. Books on several subjects including Dance, Music, Sociology, Tribal Studies, Indian History and Culture, Indian Art and Epics, Mythology and Reference works such as Encyclopedias, Yearbooks, Bibliographies and Newspaper clippings about Academy Awards and eminent artistes in the field of performing arts, can be found here; the academy has a museum-cum-gallery of musical instruments in New Delhi. There are more than 200 musical instruments on display here, it has a documentation unit that collects and records works of masters in the field of music and theatre on audio and video to help researchers. The academy produces several in-house publications; the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award is the highest national recognition given to practicing artists and scholars.
It carries a purse money of Rs. 1,00,000/-, a shawl, a tamrapatra. The number of awards given annually is 33 at present and, till date, over 1000 artists have been honoured; each year the Academy awards Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships, Ratna Sadsya, to distinguished individuals for their contribution to the field of arts, music and theatre. The first Fellow of the Akademi was elected in 1954, till date, the Akademi has honoured 123 eminent personalities as Akademi Fellows. Instituted in 2006, in memory of Ustad Bismillah Khan, this award is given to young artists for their talent in the fields of music and drama. On the occasion of the commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Ratna and Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Puraskar were conferred; these awards were given at events in Kolkata - Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Samman on 25 April 2012 and in Chennai Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Samman on 2 May 2012. The Sangeet Natak Akademi confers classical status on eight Indian dance forms: Bharatanatyam: originating in Tamil Nadu Odissi: originating in Odisha Kuchipudi: originating in Andhra Pradesh Mohiniaattam: originating in Kerala, performed by women Sattriya: originating in Assam, conferred classical status most Kathakali: originating in Kerala, performed by men Kathak: originating in Northern India Manipuri: originating in Manipur Lalit Kala Akademi: equivalent national academy for visual arts Sahitya Akademi: equivalent national academy for literature Sangeet Nataka Akademi organised the First Film Seminar in 1955 in Delhi, inaugurated by Pandit Nehru List of Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Ratna and Tagore Puraskar Recipient The official website of the Sangeet Natak Akademi List of Awardees - Sangeet Natak Akademi'An agenda for the arts', Frontline magazine, 15–28 February 2003, article on 50th anniversary Data Bank on Traditional/Folk performances Current events page on the website The Academy's Official List of Award winners Carnatic India: a portal on Indian classical fine arts Akdemi Music
The Indian Express
The Indian Express is an English-language Indian daily newspaper. It is published in Mumbai by Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split between the family members; the southern editions took the name The New Indian Express, while the northern editions, based in Mumbai, retained the original Indian Express name, with "The" prefixed to the title. The Indian Express is published at ten locations—Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Vadodara, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad, Tirupati In 1932, the Indian Express was started by an Ayurvedic doctor, P. Varadarajulu Naidu, at Chennai, being published by his "Tamil Nadu" press. Soon under financial difficulties, he sold the newspaper to Swaminathan Sadanand, the founder of The Free Press Journal, a national news agency. In 1933 The Indian Express opened its second office in Madurai, launching the Tamil edition, Dinamani. Sadanand reduced the price of the newspaper. Faced with financial difficulties, he sold a part of his stake to Ramanath Goenka as convertible debentures.
In 1935, when The Free Press Journal collapsed, after a protracted court battle with Goenka, Sadanand lost ownership of Indian Express. Goenka bought the remaining 26% of the company held by Sadanand; the newspaper came under Goenka's sole control, taking the anti-establishment tone of the paper to greater heights. At that time, it faced stiff competition from the well established The Hindu and the Mail, as well as several other prominent newspapers. In the late 1930s the newspaper's circulation was no more than 2000. In 1939 Goenka bought another prominent Telugu daily newspaper; the name Three Musketeers was used for the three dailies. In 1940 the whole premises was gutted by fire; the Hindu, a rival newspaper, helped in re-launching the paper, by getting it printed temporarily at one of its Swadesimithran's press and offering its vacated premises at 2, Mount Road, which became the landmark Express Estates. This relocation helped the Express obtain better high speed printing machines; some claimed.
In years Goenka started the Mumbai edition with the landmark Express Towers as his office when he bought the Morning Standard in 1944. Two years it became the Mumbai edition of The Indian Express. Editions were started in several cities; the Financial Express was launched in 1961 at Mumbai, Kannada Prabha at Bangalore in 1965 and a Bangalore edition of the Telugu Daily Andhra Prabha, Gujarati dailies Lok Satta and Jansatta, from Ahmedabad and Vadodara in 1952. The Delhi edition started was when the Tej group's Indian News Chronicle was acquired in 1951, which in 1953 became the Delhi edition of Indian Express. In 1990 the group bought the Sterling group of magazines, along with it the Gentleman magazine. After Ramanath Goenka's death in 1991, two of the family members split the group into Indian Express Mumbai with all the North Indian editions, while the Southern editions were grouped as Express Madurai Ltd. with Chennai as headquarters. The Indian Express began publishing daily on the World Wide Web on 8 July 1996.
Five months the website expressindia.com attracted "700,000 hits every day, excepting weekends when it to 60% of its normal levels". The Indian Express Group has a Mumbai-headquartered division, which should not be confused with Express Publications Madurai, which has a South Indian chain of newspapers, including The New Indian Express a separate corporate entity from The Express Group; the Indian Express's main newsroom is in Noida. Mumbai is a bureau. A national desk brings out all editions in Delhi; the management, still sits in Mumbai. The Indian Express website
Karnataka
Karnataka is a state in the south western region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Known as the State of Mysore, it was renamed Karnataka in 1973; the state corresponds to the Carnatic region. The capital and largest city is Bangalore. Karnataka is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, Goa to the northwest, Maharashtra to the north, Telangana to the northeast, Andhra Pradesh to the east, Tamil Nadu to the southeast, Kerala to the south; the state covers an area of 191,976 square kilometres, or 5.83 percent of the total geographical area of India. It is the sixth largest Indian state by area. With 61,130,704 inhabitants at the 2011 census, Karnataka is the eighth largest state by population, comprising 30 districts. Kannada, one of the classical languages of India, is the most spoken and official language of the state alongside Konkani, Tulu, Telugu, Malayalam and Beary. Karnataka contains some of the only villages in India where Sanskrit is spoken.
The two main river systems of the state are the Krishna and its tributaries, the Bhima, Vedavathi and Tungabhadra in North Karnataka Sharavathi in Shivamogga and the Kaveri and its tributaries, the Hemavati, Arkavati, Lakshmana Thirtha and Kabini, in the south. Most of these rivers flow out of Karnataka eastward. Though several etymologies have been suggested for the name Karnataka, the accepted one is that Karnataka is derived from the Kannada words karu and nādu, meaning "elevated land". Karu nadu may be read as karu, meaning "black" and nadu, meaning "region", as a reference to the black cotton soil found in the Bayalu Seeme region of the state; the British used the word Carnatic, sometimes Karnatak, to describe both sides of peninsular India, south of the Krishna. With an antiquity that dates to the paleolithic, Karnataka has been home to some of the most powerful empires of ancient and medieval India; the philosophers and musical bards patronised by these empires launched socio-religious and literary movements which have endured to the present day.
Karnataka has contributed to both forms of Indian classical music, the Carnatic and Hindustani traditions. The economy of Karnataka is the third-largest state economy in India with ₹15.88 lakh crore in gross domestic product and a per capita GDP of ₹174,000. Karnataka's pre-history goes back to a paleolithic hand-axe culture evidenced by discoveries of, among other things, hand axes and cleavers in the region. Evidence of neolithic and megalithic cultures have been found in the state. Gold discovered in Harappa was found to be imported from mines in Karnataka, prompting scholars to hypothesise about contacts between ancient Karnataka and the Indus Valley Civilisation ca. 3300 BCE. Prior to the third century BCE, most of Karnataka formed part of the Nanda Empire before coming under the Mauryan empire of Emperor Ashoka. Four centuries of Satavahana rule followed; the decline of Satavahana power led to the rise of the earliest native kingdoms, the Kadambas and the Western Gangas, marking the region's emergence as an independent political entity.
The Kadamba Dynasty, founded by Mayurasharma, had its capital at Banavasi. These were the first kingdoms to use Kannada in administration, as evidenced by the Halmidi inscription and a fifth-century copper coin discovered at Banavasi; these dynasties were followed by imperial Kannada empires such as the Badami Chalukyas, the Rashtrakuta Empire of Manyakheta and the Western Chalukya Empire, which ruled over large parts of the Deccan and had their capitals in what is now Karnataka. The Western Chalukyas patronised a unique style of architecture and Kannada literature which became a precursor to the Hoysala art of the 12th century. Parts of modern-day Southern Karnataka were occupied by the Chola Empire at the turn of the 11th century; the Cholas and the Hoysalas fought over the region in the early 12th century before it came under Hoysala rule. At the turn of the first millennium, the Hoysalas gained power in the region. Literature flourished during this time, which led to the emergence of distinctive Kannada literary metres, the construction of temples and sculptures adhering to the Vesara style of architecture.
The expansion of the Hoysala Empire brought minor parts of modern Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu under its rule. In the early 14th century and Bukka Raya established the Vijayanagara empire with its capital, Hosapattana, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in the modern Bellary district; the empire rose as a bulwark against Muslim advances into South India, which it controlled for over two centuries. In 1565, Karnataka and the rest of South India experienced a major geopolitical shift when the Vijayanagara empire fell to a confederation of Islamic sultanates in the Battle of Talikota; the Bijapur Sultanate, which had risen after the demise of the Bahmani Sultanate of Bidar, soon took control of the Deccan. The Bahmani and Bijapur rulers encouraged Urdu and Persian literature and Indo-Saracenic architecture, the Gol Gumbaz being one of the high points of this style. During the sixteenth century, Konkani Hindus migrated to Karnataka from Salcette, while during the seventeenth and eighteenth century, Goan Catholics migrated to North Canara and South Canara from Bardes, Goa, as a result of food shortages and heavy taxation imposed by the Portuguese.
In the period that followed
Kishori Amonkar
Kishori Ravindra Amonkar was a leading Indian classical vocalist, belonging to the Jaipur gharana, or a community of musicians sharing a distinctive musical style. She was a performer of the light classical genres thumri and bhajan. Amonkar trained under her mother, classical singer Mogubai Kurdikar from the Jaipur gharana, but she experimented with a variety of vocal styles in her career. Kishori's initial training in music was by the classical vocalist Mogubai Kurdikar, she has stated in an interview that her mother was an exacting teacher teaching her by singing phrases and making Kishori repeat them. In the early stages of her career, she travelled with her mother to performances, accompanying her on the tanpura while Kurdikar sang. In the early 1940s, young Kishori began to receive vocal lessons in Hindustani classical music from Anjanibai Malpekar of the Bhendibazaar gharana and received training from tutors of several other gharanas, her tutors included Anwar Hussain Khan of Agra gharana, Sharadchandra Arolkar of Gwalior gharana, Balkrishnabuwa Parwatkar.
Kishori has credited Anjanibai, in particular, with teaching her the technique of meend, or gliding, between notes. Amonkar's work in light music reformed her classical singing and she modified her Jaipur gharana performance style by applying features from other gharanas, she has been both criticized for pushing the boundaries of the Jaipur tradition. She was a romanticist and her approach prioritized emotional expression over tradition, so she departed from the Jaipur gharana's rhythmic and structural traditions. Amonkar has criticised the idea that schools, or gharanas, of music determine or constrain a singer's technique. Amonkar has stated that while the Jaipur gharana's technique and methods form the base of her style, she performs several variations on it, including an adoption of alapchaari, or a relaxing of the link between the rhythm and note. Amonkar has expressed her views on how musical education should be conducted, emphasizing the importance of enabling students to move beyond repetitive techniques and learn the tools that allow them to improvise on their own.
She credits her mother with using this approach to teach her, noting, "You have to walk and run on your own. The guru gives you strength to be able to do that. If you don’t you remain ordinary. My mother made sure I wasn’t ordinary.” She noted that training is an ongoing process, stated in an interview that she listened to her own recorded performances to analyse and improve her technique. Amonkar emphasized emotion and spirituality as essential parts of her singing, stating that "To me it is a dialogue with the divine, this intense focused communication with the ultimate other." She has spoken of music as an act of sublimation, noting that it is the sadhana to attain the sadhya. In 2010, she published a book in Marathi titled Swaraartha Ramani in which she elaborated her views on musical theory and practice. Amonkar's career as a classical vocalist grew in the 70s. Prior to this, she stopped performing because of an illness that affected her ability to sing. Amonkar has said that she used this hiatus in her career to consider and develop her own style of singing, that transcended classical schools of music.
Amonkar has spoken about the treatment of women performers as classical musicians, noting that the experience of watching her mother perform informed her own approach to professionalism and fair treatment when it comes to ensuring that musicians are paid well for their performances. On one notable occasion, she refused to perform because the audience was badly behaved, emphasizing the importance of respecting the performers during a concert, she created many compositions for a number of ragas. Amonkar was a popular speaker and traveled throughout India. In addition to her career as a classical vocalist, Amonkar was known for her performances of lighter classical pieces, with a wide repertoire of thumris and bhajans, as well as some performances for film soundtracks, she sang for the soundtrack of the 1990 Hindi film Drishti. She became interested in film music and sang playback for the 1964 movie Geet Gaya Patharon Ne, but returned to classical music in part because of unpleasant experiences with the film industry.
The decision may have been motivated by her mother Mogubai Kurdikar's disapproval. Kishori Amonkar was born in Bombay on 10 April 1932, her father died when she was 7 years old, leaving Amonkar and her two elder siblings to be raised by their mother, the classical vocalist Mogubai Kurdikar. Kishori was married to Ravindra Amonkar, a school teacher, who died in 1992; the couple had two sons and Nihar, now both in their sixties. She was sometimes described as "temperamental". Responding to these comments, Amonkar has stated that this reputation derives from her insistence that performers be treated respectfully, to the fact that she chooses to spend time before her concerts in solitude and preparation instead of socializing with fellow musicians. Amonkar has stated, "I never play to the gallery; the audience cannot disturb the loneliness of an artiste." Amonkar did not enjoy giving press interviews. Amonkar lived in Mumbai, she died on 3 April 2017 in a week before her 85th birthday, at her residence in Mumbai.
Amonkar received several of India's national awards and civilian honours, including the Padma B
Sawai Gandharva
Ramachandra Kundgolkar Saunshi, popularly known as Pandit Sawai Gandharva, was a popular Hindustani Classical vocalist and Marathi stage actor of the Kirana Gharana. He was the foremost disciple of Utd. Abdul Karim Khan and guru of Bharat Ratna laureate Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. Pt. Gandharva is most well known for popularizing the stylings of the Kirana Gharana through his accomplished disciples, including Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Dr. Gangubai Hangal, Firoz Dastur, Pt. Basavaraj Rajguru. Ramchandra Kundgolkar was born into Deshastha Brahmin family on 19 January 1886, in Kundgol, 19 km. from Dharwad, Karnataka, he grew to be known as Rambhau. His father, Ganesh Saunshi, was a local clerk employed by a landlord. Early on, Pt. Gandharva did not show interest in academics but progressed in school through the admiration his teachers had for how "sweetly" he sang poems, he was admitted to Lamington High School in Hubli which he would travel to everyday by train. Pt. Gandharva's father found it difficult to fund his son's education and his schooling stopped.
After discontinuing his education, Pt. Gandharva's father put him under the tutelage of Balwantrao Kolhatkar who found himself in Kundgol. From Kolhatkar, Pt. Gandharva learned 75 Dhrupad compositions, 25 Tarana compositions, a hundred other compositions and mastered a few Taals. Kolhatkar died in 1898, leaving Pt. Gandharva's tutelage incomplete and without guidance. In traveling to high school everyday to Hubli, Pt. Gandharva would participate in the daily cultural events in Hubli, where he spent his time watching Nataks and listening to music. Once, he found himself listening to a young Utd. Abdul Karim Khan and was captivated. From onwards, Pt. Gandharva wished for the Ustad's tutelage. After Balwantrao Kolhatkar's passing, Utd. Abdul Karim Khan began touring Karnataka, where he stayed with the Nadiger family, Pt. Gandharva's father's employer, whom Pt. Gandharva was staying with, it was a time when the founder of Kirana Gharana, was touring Karnataka. He would stay with the Nadigers for days on end.
On such a trip, Ramchandra hovered around Abdul Karim Khan, humming jamunaa ke teer, the Ustad’s Bhairavi cheez. It caught Abdul Karim Khan’s ear who asked, "Kaun hai yeh ladkaa? Galaa achchaa hai". Ranganagowda Nadiger pounced upon this opportunity: "Ustadji, he is our clerk’s son, he wants to learn music from you". "Yeh baath hai tho chalo hamaare saath". Fortune smiled on Ramchandra; this was in 1901. Abdul Karim Khan did not want his name to be spoilt by disciples learning haphazardly, he made a contract with them. Rambhau did not complete his musical education. Against the wishes of his teacher, he joined a drama company and became popular as a singer in Marathi theatre, he received acclaim for playing female roles, the title, Sawai Gandharva after, Bal Gandharva, the doyen of Marathi theatre. He worked for Govindrao Tembe's Shivraj Natak Mandali for some time, becoming famous for playing female roles. In 1942, at the age of 56, his concert career ended abruptly after he suffered a paralytic stroke, but he continued teaching until he died in 1952.
Although he became a well known classical vocalist, his most enduring legacy is that he trained vocalists such as Gangubai Hangal, Bhimsen Joshi, Basavaraj Rajguru and Firoz Dastur. Krishnarao Phulambrikar started his career as child singer-actor in Natyakala Prawartak music drama company where he got an opportunity to learn classical music intended for musical theatre from Sawai Gandharva, his disciple Bhimsen Joshi started the annual Sawai Gandharva Music Festival in Pune, in memory of Sawai Gandharva. The festival was held on a modest scale for first two decades, but it became popular in the 1970s and 1980s. "Sawai Gandharva". Musical Nirvana.com, August 1, 2000. Retrieved 2007-09-01. "Where north meets south". Sunday Magazine-The Hindu, November 29, 1998. Archived from the original on 30 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-01. "Biography Sawai Gandharva". Times of India, Bombay on September 19, 1986. Retrieved 16 November 2009
