Vishnu Digambar Paluskar

Vishnu Digambar Paluskar: The artist who made Indian classical music famous all over the world

Vishnu Digambar Paluskar was the first composer and original singer of Mahatma Gandhi & # 39; s favorite hymn ‘Raghupati Raghav Rajaram ...’
Underline the lines of India's identity in the world or make a list of donations from India to the world, Indian music will inevitably be involved on both sides. The reason is also reasonable. Today there is a worldwide obsession with Indian music (classical). From where people are coming to their country to learn, know and understand Indian music. In many countries, many artists from India are gaining name, work and price.

But the situation that exists today or that the history of Indian music for the last nearly a century looks just as golden, has not all been achieved so easily. To achieve this, a musician-artist had devoted his entire life to it. At the cost of the same artist's perseverance, passion, dedication and dedication, today Indian classical music seems to have expanded on such a large scale and it has also become a prestigious profession. The artist's name was Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. Next find out the story of this artist, first find out that Paluskar was visually impaired and formally studied only till 4th class!

Paluskar was born on August 18, 1872 in Kurundwad, Maharashtra. His father Digambar Pandit was a Kirtania singer. Paluskar was just a child when he lost his sight in an accident during a fireworks display. Now it became difficult to read and write further.

After this, the father sent his blind son to Pandit Balakrishna Buwa Ichalkaranjikar in Miraj for music education. When Paluskar reached there, he remained there for 12 years. There is a saying like proverb and idiom that in the old days boys who read used to tie their braid with rope so that they would not fall asleep, interestingly Paluskar really did that!

It is said that Paluskar used to rehearse the chutia all night on the rope tied to the tanpure. Then when they left after being educated and initiated by their guru, they reached the princely states according to the custom of that time so that their art would be appreciated, they would get a chance to perform and they would make a living. Then the music was either confined to the palaces of the kings and princes or the other place was the room of Tawaifs.

Paluskar arrived in the princely states of Gwalior and Baroda, considered to be great patrons of music. But after visiting the princely states, living here asking for help does not save them for long. Then he decided to do a public concert at that time. It was his extraordinary decision. It was the beginning of a new path.

Up to that time, there was no trend of classical music among the common people, with the help of the common people. However, in the meantime, Paluskar did his first show in Saurashtra i.e. present day Gujarat and after that he returned to his state of Maharashtra. Here they started moving from village to village. But wherever he went, as a musician and artist, he was looked down upon. The ones in the upper house looked at it with a nauseous look. Not only Paluskar but all the musicians and artists were looked down upon by the society of that time.

On the whole, it was difficult for the artists who did not get the protection of the princely states or the Tawaifs did not give a place in their rooms. However, even in these circumstances, Paluskar did not give up. They started walking from village to village without any light in their eyes.

It is said that during this time he resolved that he would continue to move around until he would connect Indian music, musicians, artists with the common man, establish and establish among them. For this he started changing the songs. Those who were songs of love and makeup, started adding devotion by removing vulgar words from them. Apparently, this change gradually aroused people's interest in his songs and music.

The Paluskar experiment was successful. People joined them. It was in this order that he reached Lahore in 1901. He went there and started Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. It was his courage and confidence to believe that people would send their children to him for music education. To a large extent, he was also successful in this endeavor. Meanwhile, the news of his father's death also reached him but he was so happy with his work that he kept on doing it.

Then in 1908 Paluskar came to Mumbai. Here also he started the branch of Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. By then, Paluskar had instilled music in the common people of Maharashtra. As a result, more children started coming to Mumbai to study. As Paluskar's mind grew, he started thinking about expanding Gandharva College so that more and more children could be taught music. For this, Paluskar again took loans from here and there and started performing concerts as much as he could, day and night. But his hard work was not very successful here. He could not repay the loan on time and in 1924, when he went out for his program, the lenders auctioned off the college building.

After all this, if Paluskar had been replaced by someone else, it would have been shattered, but they continued. In the meantime, he had joined the freedom struggle. He had come in contact with Mahatma Gandhi, Lala Lajpat Rai, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya etc. and he had also become Gandhi's favorite. Paluskar was the first composer and the first original singer of Mahatma Gandhi's most beloved hymn 'Raghupati Raghav Rajaram ...'. And then ‘Vande Ma’

The original tune in which Taram 'is played today is also heard by those who composed it.

Paluskar's work is not limited to this. Despite being blind, he was also composing music books during this time. He has written about 50 books on music. An important thing about her is that she was not only freeing music from the monarchy at that time, but also started trying to pave the way for possibilities for female artists. She has written a separate book for women's music.

Further, a great contribution of Paluskar to Indian music is that he played Pandit Omkarnath Thakur, Pandit Vinayak Rao Patwardhan, Prof. BR Deodhar, Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas and Pandit Vaman Rao Padhye were some of the great and classic artists in his vicinity. It was these artists who carried on the tradition of Indian classical music in such a way, teaching others that in this way it was almost certain that it would become world famous again.