Vinay Chandra Maudgalya

Vinay Chandra Maudgalya was an Indian classical musician, vocalist and the founder of Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, a music and dance academy for the promotion of Hindustani music and Indian classical dances. He was a follower of Gwalior gharana. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1984.

Biography

Born in 1918 at the Indian capital of New Delhi, Maudgalya learnt classical music under Vishnu Digambar Paluskar and Vinayakrao Patwardhan of the Gwalior gharana. In 1939, he started Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, a music academy of modest proportions at his residence in Connaught Place and the institution grew to become a noted arts centre over the years with an own building built on land granted by the government and over 1200 students in the disciplines of music and dance. Several renowned musicians and dancers such as Annapurna Devi, Ravi Shankar, Shambhu Maharaj, Kumar Gandharv, Malini Rajurkar, Mallikarjun Mansur and T. R. Mahalingam have performed at the academy which has been functioning at the facility at Vishnu Digambar Marg since 1974. Pt. Mudagalya is also remembered for the lyrics of the song Hind Desh ke Niwasi in the animation film Ek Anek Aur Ekta by Vijaya Mulay which won the National Film Award for Best Educational Film.

Maudgalya was awarded the civilian honour of Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1984. He was married to Padma Devi and the couple had two sons, Madhup Mudgal, a renowned musician and the incumbent principal of Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, Mukul Mudgal, the retired Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court who headed the Mudgal Committee, comprising Additional Solicitor General of India L Nageswara Rao and senior advocate and former cricket umpire Nilay Dutta, appointed by the Supreme Court to conduct an independent inquiry into the allegation of corruption, betting and spot-fixing in 2013 Indian Premier League and a daughter, Madhavi Mudgal, an Odissi exponent. Both Mudhup and Madhavi are also recipients of Padma Shri. Mudgalya's music pursuit is one of the main features of the 2002 documentary film, Pratidhwani - Echoes, made by Basheer Ali which focuses on other renowned musicians such as Mohan Nadkarni, Naushad, Vasant Paluskar and Ravi Shankar as well.

Maudgalya died in 1995.