Omkarnath Thakur

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Omkarnath Thakur (born June 24, 1897 in Jahaaj , † December 29, 1967 ) was an Indian singer of Hindustan classical music and music teacher and scholar .

Thakur was promoted in his childhood by a philanthropist named Shahpurji Mancherji Dungaji , who enabled him to study with the singer Vishnu Digambar Paluskar at the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya , a school for classical music in Bombay. He studied the art of singing the Gwalior Gharana with him and was sent by his master to Lahore after several years in 1916 as head of a music school . In 1919 he founded his own music school, which was based in Bombay from 1934 and in Surat from 1942 .

At the same time, his reputation as a musician grew. He appeared before the Maharajah Sayajirao Gaekwad III and the King of Nepal and was invited to the International Music Conference in Florence in 1931. He performed here in front of Benito Mussolini and presented Hindustan music in concerts and courses in Germany, the Netherlands, England and Switzerland. Thakur was also politically active. He joined the Mahatma Gandhi movement and became President of the Bharuch District Congress Committee of the Indian National Congress . Jawaharlal Nehru invited him to sing the patriotic song Vande Mataram in the central hall of the parliament building on the occasion of India's independence on August 15, 1947 , which was broadcast nationwide on the radio and later became an integral part of his concerts.

In 1950 Thakur became dean of the music faculty at Benares Hindu University , where he taught until his retirement. His students included the musicologist Premlata Sharma , Balwantrai Bhatt and the violinist N. Rajam . In 1956 he published Pranava Bharati , a music theory work, and between 1936 and 1962 Sangitanjali , a six-volume work on the practice of classical Hindustan music. Among other awards, he received a doctorate from Benares Hindu University and Rabindra Bharati University .

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