Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar set up the Gandharva
Mahavidyalaya at Lahore on May 5, 1901. It was the first music school in
India. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (August 18, 1872 - August 21, 1931) was
an Indian classical musician born in Kurundwad, a small town falling
under the Deccan division of Bombay Presidency during British rule,
presently in Maharashtra.
Gandharva Mahavidyalaya was run by public support, donations from the
richer classes and funds raised by the concerts of Vishnu Digambar
Paluskar. The school was a challenge to the traditional teacher-student
method of training music where a student lived under the roof of the
teacher. Many students from his early batches became respected musicians
and teachers in North India. This brought a change in the way people
looked at classical musicians. Vishnu Digambar returned to Mumbai in
September 1908 to start a branch of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya.
Eventually, the Lahore school was shifted to Mumbai after Independence.
