Basavaraj Rajguru

GHARANA

Kirana

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Basavraj Rajguru was a Hindustani classical vocalist associated with the Kirana tradition. He was born into a family of scholars, astrologers and musicians in Yaliwal, a village in the Dharwad district of north Karnataka, and was initiated into music at an early age by his father, a Carnatic musician trained in Tanjavur. As a boy he sang in plays, first becoming known with Vamanrao Master's travelling drama company. He lost his father at the age of 13, and around this time Panchakshari Gawai took him under his tutelage. In 1936, at the 600th anniversary of the Vijayanagara Empire in Hampi, he gave his first concert with his guru. After Gawai's death in 1944, Basavraj moved to Bombay to learn from the Kirana musician Sawai Gandharva, who, suffering from paralysis, asked another Kirana musician, Sureshbabu Mane, to teach him. He later travelled to the North West of Pakistan to learn from Waheed Khan, Gawai's guru, and studied with Latif Khan in Karachi for six months. His repertoire ranged from khayal to vachanas, natyageet, thumri and ghazal, in eight languages. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 1975 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991, and he received Sangeet Natak Akademi awards from the central and state governments as well as an honorary doctorate from Karnataka University, Dharwad. He died in July 1991, one of three Dharwad musicians to die in this period, with Kumar Gandharva (January 1992) and Mallikarjun Mansur (September 1992).