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Pt. Vishnu Digambar Palukar

Despite a visual handicap, Vishnu Digambar Palukar not only earned fame but also established the infrastructure for further development of music and provided a respectable status to artists. He was born on August 18, 1872 in Kurundwad State presently in Maharashtra. His father Digambar Gopal was a well-known Kirtankar (singer of religious songs). He enjoyed the patronage of the ruler of the State, Shimata Dajisahad. Vishnu became the companionship of the ruler’s son, Nanasahab who was the same age. Vishnu was excellent at his studies and also attended musical programmes with his father. As per tradition, he was married at a young age.

When he was in class VI he met with an accident. It was Diwali when a cracker struck his face and his eyes were badly damaged. He was immediately taken to the doctor who treated him but in vain. It was finally advised that Vishnu had negligible vision and he should not put any pressure on his eyes and he should not try to read or write.

His family members were extremely sorry but this calamity was a blessing in disguise for him. He was sent to Miraj to get training in music from the famous musician Balakrishna Buwa. His teacher was a court singer in the rule of Miraj and hence Vishnu also enjoyed the patronage of the rule Balasaheb Miraj kar.

Vishnu used to refrain from wasting time in play or idle gossip and dutifully performed his appointed duties at his teacher’s house. He also used to look after the personal needs of his preceptor and attentively absorbed everything that was taught. He also diligently practiced what he had been taught. This continued from 1887 to 1896.

At one point of time in his life he faced an awkward situation. Once a public function was organized in Miraj where all the respectable people of the State were invited. Although he was invited, his teacher was not. When Vishnu enquired he was told that his teacher was a simple singer and he was not a respectable man of society. This hurt him very much and he decided to uplift the status of musicians and create positive public awareness about music.

Throughout his life he received recognition and patronages from many royal dignitaries but he decided to not succumb to monetary temptations and work towards building respect for music. At that time only a few musicians enjoyed royal patronage and the rest were forced to give music lessons to professional women singers and many of them used to fall prey to various vices. Some singers were reluctant to transmit their knowledge to their disciples. All these problems forced Vishnu to make a plan to transform music into an art which would become a respected and well loved art. For this he also thought of establishing schools for music in which knowledge of music would be unreservedly dispensed. He also visualized that it would be easier to inculcate discipline if the teacher and student lived together. For this he started planning residential schools. He decided to devote his life top these goals when he was only 25 years old and adhered to his ideals till his last breath.

Once he was climbing Girnar hills in Saurashtra. He found the environment pleasant and started singing. Suddenly he felt that somebody was listening to his song.  He looked and found a saint listening to him. The saint seemed to have some knowledge of music and he even pointed out some mistakes in his singing and left. Vishnu too started moving ahead and he heard some music which seemed to change the whole environment. He looked and found that it was the same saint. He expressed his desire to learn such music but the saint said that such divine music could not be learned by all. He advised Vishnu to go to Punjab to be able to fulfill his desire.

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He started his mission and traveled to many places singing and gaining acclaim and knowledge from people he met. He was inspired to study ancient texts in context of music. He also wrote books and his fame spread.

He went to Lahore where he had already gained some popularity due to his books and opened his first Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. He always tried to bring perfection to his skills.

He also started selecting pupils from respectable families and gave them training under strict discipline. When he started preparing artists and music teachers, a large number of aspirants came to him and most of them were from a poor background. These pupils were put in hostels under strict supervision. Due to this extraordinary work, he was considered a highly influential resident of Lahore and his music school, Gandharva Mahavidyalaya started running smoothly.

Soon he wished to return to Maharashtra. He returned to Bombay with some of his accomplished disciples. There he not only gained instant popularity by his music but also opened a branch of Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. There was a heavy rush for admission as a large number of boys, girls and adults from all strata of society desired to learn music. Apart from music classes, a printing press, a Hindi magazine titled Sangeetamrit Pravaha and a factory producing musical instruments was also run by the visually handicapped Vishnu. Slowly other branches of the school were opened in the Kaladevi area of Bombay, Pune and Nagpur. In the period from 1905 to 1912 Vishnu Digambar Paluskar was at the peak of his success. He was able to convert his dreams into reality with single mindedness.

In 1913 some friends suggested that Gandharva Vidhyalaya should have its own building so Vishnu bought a plot and a building was constructed and it was inaugurated in 1915. This entire project was financed from borrowed funds. However, the creditors began pressing for repayment and the problem of debt started and remained with him till his death. But he went ahead unperturbed and constructed a hostel by taking a bigger loan and a part of it was used for repayment of an earlier loan. With very passing year, his debts grew but his work was not allowed to suffer. Between 1918 and 1922 Gandharva Mahavidyalaya successfully organized five music conferences. With new enrolments the expenses kept rising. Although a number of his friends came forward to help but they put a condition that the institution should be registered. Vishnu was apprehensive that once the institution was registered, all kinds of undesirable elements would invade the managing committee and divest the path of the institution.

He had firm determination and instead of getting his institution registered, he started collecting funds at his level. However, despite a number of tours and discourses on the Ramayana he could not collect enough. Another reason of failure was that during the First World War the economy was badly affected. Finally heavy debts forced him to agree to a public auction of his college building.

Although he was deeply religions since childhood but when has was in Lahore, he was presented a copy of the Ramcharitmanasa. By this time he had a good command of Hindi and he started his discourses on the Ramayana. Slowly he started devoting most of his time to this and even started wearing saffron robes.

Even after auction of his college building he didn’t lose heart and his daily routine remained unchanged. Owing to his discourses he was better known as a saint rather than as a singer.

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His public appearances were quite frequent till 1913-14 but then they started declining. The reason for this was unique. At that time the fees for a public appearance of a musician was about Rs 50 to 75 but he used to charge Rs.500. He was of the opinion that the artist should not demean himself by accepting an invitation to perform by all and accept whatever remuneration they chose to offer. He believed that anything that became excessively cheap lost its value. He used to say that musicians as a class must live well behave well and thereby elevate their own position in society. However, this opinion was not accepted favourably in public.

The end of the19th and at the beginning of the 20th century was a period which produced a number of great reformers and public figures such as Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Chitaranjan Das, Gopal Krishna Gokhla, etc. for awakening political consciousness and Agarkar, Phule and others for awareness of the need for social reforms. The same sort of transformation was brought about by Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar in the field of music. He succeeded in obtaining for the musicians an honourable place in society. He was also responsible for introducing music as an optional subject in the curricula of numerous elementary and secondary schools and colleges. Apart from opening a chain of Gandharva Vidyalayas, he was also able to bring about a tremendous transformation in social beliefs which enabled hundreds of boys and girls to attend a music school. Girls from higher class families too began participating openly in public concerts.

Vishnu Digambar wrote a number of books on music. He developed a number of disciples who became renowned musicians in due course. His Ramdhun “Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram……” was quite popular and was adopted by Mahatma Gandhi. His disciple Pandit Omkar Nath Thakur used to say that when Vishnu sang a feeling was evoked in him - as if the earth was vibrating and even candles got extinguished by the power of his voice.

He is remembered even after his death and for that matter the celebrations for his birth centenary went on for one year. A postage stamp was also released in his memory and a documentary film was made on his life by the Films Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Source: Eminent Disabled people of the world, Vinod Kumar Mishra

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