The Vishnu duo organized music conferences and concerts outside the court halls of the kings and wrote books on music, including developing a standard notation system to make musical knowledge more accessible to seekers and practitioners of music education. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, despite losing his vision at a young age, emerged as a talented musician and, in 1901, opened a music school called “Gandharva Mahavidyalaya” in Lahore. He helped foster a movement of music learning away from the closed Gharana system and distributed musical knowledge through his books. Source: Wikipedia, Original here.
Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, a contemporary to Vishnu Digambar, researched extensively by visiting many musical Gharanas collecting and comparing compositions and came up with a monumental treatise called “Hindustani Sangeeta Paddhati,” which suggested categorisation of ragas based on their notes into various “Thaats.”
Source: Wikipedia, Original here.
The Modern Maestros
These pioneers paved the way for the future generations of many modern musicians to pursue music more professionally and popularize it through their performances worldwide. Though many contemporary musicians have mastered and made their mark in India few have taken Indian music to the international stage. Notable flag bearers amongst such international masters are Sitar Pandit Ravishanker, Gayani MS Subbalakshmi, Venu Mahalingam, Veena Eemani Shankara Shastri, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Gayaka Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, Shehnai Bismillakhan, Bansuri Hariprasad Chaurasia, Tabla Zakir Hussain, to name a few. At the same time, international music beans spilled into Indian music in the form of a few modern musical trends and western instruments like violins and guitars.
An adroit odyssey to eternity Thus the age-old multimillennial tradition of Indian music made its mega-voyage through various coercive eras, donning their conspicuous colours without ever severing its concealed core culture. Despite having to pass through major crossing roads like the Persian music of the Islamic world and the Western music of the Christian world, its journey continued straight ahead without getting diverted off the course.
Tarang
The saga of the ragas is a melodic medley of piety with divinity and beauty with serenity; adroitly pedalling its odyssey towards the destiny of eternity…
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