Today is the death anniversary of Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, who is considered the father of modern Hindustani music. The Indian musicologist wrote the first modern treatise on Hindustani classical music. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande was born on 10 August 1860 during Janmashtami.
His father Narayan Rao Bhatkhande was an accountant in a company and they used to live in Walkeshwar, Bombay. His remarkable contribution was the grade-wise textbooks on music known as ‘Kramik Pustakaa Malika’. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande.
Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande started the Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in Baroda using his own method of teaching music. He trained music teachers.
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How Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande became the father of Indian music?
From a very young age, he showed an interest in music. He learned to play the flute at an early age. He celebrated religious festivals because of his love for music. Bhatkhande completed a BA degree at Elphinstone College in Bombay. Interestingly, Bhatkhande graduated with a degree in law from Bombay University and briefly pursued a career in criminal law.
He even traveled for a brief time to meet music maestros and ustads researching music. Bhatkhande become a member of Gayan Uttejak Mandali in 1884. To master the music he began the study of ancient texts such as the Natya Shastra and Sangeet Ratnakara.
He created a common understanding among musicians of the rules of ragas and dhuns. These rules are found in the fourth part of his book Hindustani Sangeet Method, published in 1932.
Throughout his life, Bhathande collected old musical compositions from wherever he could and wrote his famous Sanskrit book ‘Lakshya Sangeeta’ and in 1909 he published a four-volume book, titled ‘Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati’ in Marathi.
On the other hand, Among the notable scholars who followed in the footsteps of Bhatkhande are his disciple S N Ratanjankar, famous musician Shri. Dilip Kumar Roy, Ratanjankar’s disciple K. G. Ginde, S.C.R. Bhatt, Ram Ashrey Jha ‘Ramrang,’ Sumati Mutatkar, and Krishna Kumar Kapoor.
Though later scholars such as Pandit V. D. Paluskar, Pandit Vinayakrao Patwardhan, and Pandit Omkarnath Thakur improved on his notation system, it remained a publisher’s favorite.
Bhatkhande established schools and colleges in India to teach Hindustani music in a systematic manner. He reorganized the Baroda state music school in 1916 and later established the Madhav Music College in Gwalior with the help of the Maharaja of Gwalior.
Meanwhile, then education minister of the United Provinces Dr. Rai Rajeshwar Bali, founded Marris College of Music in Lucknow, for which Bhatkhande, prepared the course material, in 1926. The college was renamed Bhatkhande College of Hindustani Music later on, and it is now known as Bhatkhande Music Institute.
On 1936, 19 September, Pandit Bhatkhande during Ganeshotsav after battling paralysis and a thigh fracture.
