The second part of our series on city streets named after Hindustani musicians focuses on Pandit Paluskar Chowk. For many Mumbai residents...
The second part of our series on city streets named after Hindustani musicians focuses on Pandit Paluskar Chowk. For many Mumbai residents, Pandit Paluskar is a name that they remember as an important terminus for many Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking bus routes. It is located in an area used to be Bombay’s entertainment district in the first half of the twentieth century. The Opera House is a familiar landmark here.
But for Hindustani music lovers, the name Pandit Paluskar brings to mind the life and work of music educationist and vocalist Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, who spent a significant part of his life in the neighbourhood after he opened the Bombay branch of his Gandharva Mahavidyalaya music school in 1908. Soon after, he moved the headquarters of the school from Lahore to the coastal city.
The merits and demerits of institutionalised education for Hindustani music have been discussed since a long time, but for now I would like to focus on the Bombay branch of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya.
A multi-pronged approach
After having run his school in rental premises, Paluskar in 1913 decided to construct an exclusive building for which he bought a plot of land with the help of a loan. The plot was on Sandhurst...
