Vishnu Digambar Paluskar

The Story

Born in 1872, Paluskar was a blind singer of extraordinary gifts — he lost his sight as a child but developed a voice that moved all who heard it. He trained under the great masters of the Gwalior tradition, and he resolved to do what no musician had done: to take music from the closed circles of the rich into the public domain.

In 1901 he founded the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in Lahore, the first music school open to all, where music was taught systematically and publicly. The institution, which spread to other cities, trained a generation of musicians and made music education accessible to everyone — breaking the monopoly of the hereditary masters.

He was also a patriot: he sang at the Congress sessions, used his art for the nation, and his public concerts made classical music a national possession. He died in 1931, honoured as the apostle of music for the people, and the modern public concert owes its existence to his vision.