Bhimsen Joshi

He married twice in his lifetime. The first was to Sunanda Katti in 1944. The couple was blessed with four children.

In 1951, he married Vatsala Mudholkar. Despite bigamy being prohibited according to Hindu law, he did not divorce or separate from his first wife. His second wife bore him three children.

Though both his families lived together for some time, it was later that his first wife along with her children moved out to live in a rented space in Limayewadi in Sadashiv Peth, Pune.

Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi was born on February 4, 1922, in the Dharwad district of Karnataka, in a Kannada Madhwa Brahmin family, to Gururaj Joshi and Godavaribai. He was the eldest of the 16 children born to the couple.

From an early age, young Bhimsen had a deep fascination and bent for music. He loved playing the musical instruments, harmonium and tanpura and often would move out of the house upon hearing a procession of bhajan singers or azaan at a nearby mosque.

The recording of Abdul Karim Khan's Thumri ‘Piya Bin Nahi Aavat Chain’ served as a turning point in the life of this budding artist who, upon hearing the classic piece, resolved to become a musician.

Unaffected by his father’s forbiddance to turn into a musician, he nevertheless left his home at the age of 11 in order to find himself a guru. His travel expedition began from Bijapur to Pune and later to Gwalior, where he finally admitted himself into the Madhava Music School with assistance from famous sarod player Hafiz Ali Khan.

His stay at Gwalior was however short-lived and he travelled further to New Delhi, Kolkata, Lucknow and Rampur before being tracked down by his father in Jalandhar, Punjab, who successfully coaxed him to return to Dharvad.

His career commenced in 1941 when he gave his first live performance. The following year, he released his first album under HMV, which was primarily a collection of devotional songs in Hindi and Kannada.

In 1943, he moved to Mumbai and started working as a radio artist. Three years later, he came up with the magnum opus of his career that opened roads of success in the field of classical music for him.

It was during his Guru Sawai Gandharva’s 60th birthday celebration concert that his performance earned him overwhelming response, in the form of flattering reaction not just from the audience but his Guru as well.

Since then, there was no looking back for this blessed musician who performed at various venues, concerts and shows. He released numerous albums under HMV records, each of which displayed his distinctive style in Hindustani Classical Music and brought forth his spontaneity, accuracy and mastery over rhythm. In 1984, he became the first Hindustani vocalist to win a platinum disc

A purist by belief, he hardly ever moved from the traditional compositions of the Kirana Gharana, occasionally employing sargam and tihaais. Though he tended to favour a lot of complex and serious ragas, he remained loyal to Shuddha Kalyan, Miyan Ki Todi, Puriya Dhanashri, Multani, Bhimpalasi, Darbari, and Ramkali ragas which he employed fervently in his compositions.

Throughout his life, he was conferred with numerous prestigious and highly esteemed awards, the most prolific amongst them being the national awards such as, ‘Padma Shree’, ‘Padma Bhushan’, ‘Padma Vibhushan’ and ‘Bharat Ratna’ in 1972, 1975, 1999 and 2009 respectively.

In 1976, he was presented with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. In 1985, for his contribution as a playback singer he received the National Film Award in the category of Best Playback Male Singer.

In 2000, he received the Aditya Vikram Birla Kalashikhar Puruskar. Two years later, he received the Maharashtra Bhushan and the following year was felicitated by the Government of Kerala with Swathi Sangeetha Puruskaram. In 2005, Karnataka Ratna was presented to him.

In 2008, he bagged the Swami Haridas Award, which was followed by the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Government of Delhi in 2009. Months before his death, he was presented with the S V Narayanaswamy Rao National Award by Rama Sewa Mandali of Bangalore in 2010.