Vishnu Digambar Paluskar

<p><strong>Vishnu Digambar Paluskar</strong> (1872–1931) is an Hindustani classical vocalist. born in Kurundwad, a small town falling under the Deccan division of Bombay Presidency during British rule, presently in Maharashtra. His father, Digambar Gopal Paluskar, was a singer of Kirtan, a religious song.</p><p>He went to a local school in Kurundwad for primary education. But tragedy struck Paluskar at an early age. During a Hindu festival called Datta Jayanti, a fire-cracker burst near his face damaging both his eyes. Being a small town, there was no immediate treatment available and Paluskar lost his eyesight.</p><p>The king of Miraj recognising the talent in the boy put him under the guidance of Balakrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar, a learned musician. Paluskar trained under him for 12 years till in 1896 the relations between the teacher and student became strained.</p><p>On May 5, 1901 Paluskar founded the Gandharva Mahavidyala, a school to impart formal training in Indian classical music. It was a school open to all and one of the first music schools in India to run on public support and donations rather than the patronage of the royalty. The school was a challenge to the traditional teacher-student method of training music where a student lived under the roof of the teacher. Many students from his early batches became respected musicians and teachers in North India. This brought a change in the way people looked at classical musicians. They started treating musicians with respect which was not associated with the profession earlier.</p>