Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande
Interested in music from boyhood, Bhatkhande devoted his life to research in the field. He was the first to organize a full-fledged conference of musicians and musicologists at Baroda. He also reorganized the Baroda State Music School. His ambition to get music with the inauguration of the college opened was realised with the inauguration of the Marris College of Music at Lucknow. He made a significant contribution to the field of music by pioneering the publication of a collection of compositions in Hindustani music. He composed some songs himself, under the signature ‘Chatur’. He wrote the famous Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati in Marathi, trying to bridge the gap between theory and practice. He classified ragas into ten thatas (parental scales) now widely accepted in north India. He edited several classics besides authoring Abhinava Raga Manjari and A Short Historical Survey of the Music of Upper India.
