Previous Year Question
The first Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, a music training school, was set up in 1901 by Vishnu Digambar Paluskar in
Correct Answer: D
Detailed Solution
Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar established the first Gandharva Mahavidyalaya at Lahore in 1901. Lahore was then a part of British India and is presently located in Pakistan.
The institution aimed to make Hindustani classical music education accessible to ordinary students by taking it beyond royal courts, hereditary musical families and restricted guru–disciple circles.
Its major contributions were:
Providing music education with a public and institutional structure.
Promoting a systematic curriculum and graded training.
Spreading Paluskar’s notation system for preserving musical compositions in written form.
Opening music education to students from different social backgrounds.
Contributing to the preservation and wider propagation of Hindustani classical music.
A distinction should be made between the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and the Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal. Paluskar founded the original Gandharva Mahavidyalaya at Lahore in 1901, whereas his disciples formed the Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal in 1931 after his death.