For six decades, this has been the dwelling of the renowned music school, dedicated to the music style propagated by the Gwalior Gharana. While some exponents of the Gwalior shaili like Malini Rajurkar, Veena Sahastrabuddhe, Sanjeev Abhyankar, Padma Talwalkar (the last two having received their basic training in this style) are household names today, the Pune school too has been the grooming ground for talented others like Pramod Marathe, Narendra Chiplunkar, Shekhar Kumbhojkar and Sangeeta Mate.

One amongst the 150-odd Gandharva schools all over the country, it owes its origin to Pandit Vinayakrao Patwardhan. A promise to his guru Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, a tribute to his memory and an earnest desire to keep this style of music alive... these motivated him to start the school, and keep the fire burning, despite the initial financial problems. May 8, 1932 and the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya opened its doors in Pune; three decades after the inauguration of the parent organisation in Lahore in 1901.

The teething troubles through, there was no looking back. The tradition of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya has endured till date, thanks to dedicated custodians like Pandit Bapurao Paluskar, V.D. Ghate, Pandit Mukundrao Gokhale. In the next couple of years, it was people like Dada Pandit, Dhondumama Marathe who continued the good work, the mantle later being handed over to others like Anant Marathe (associated for nearly 40 years) and Pramod Marathe who are at the helm today.

``While the emphasis is still on promulgating the Gwalior shaili, there is no rigid pattern. Since a decade now, the trend is for a synthesis of different styles, borrowing other bandishs,'' observes Pramod Marathe, the vice-principal of the school and a harmonium player of repute. `` But the tradition of imparting training in dance has been discontinued,'' he says.

Currently, the instrumental aspect covers the violin, sitar, tabla and harmonium, and the vocal training includes semi-classical too. About 200 students spend some part of their day here, training for different levels of expertise, from the prarambhik to the visharad level, all of which takes six years. The school is affiliated to the Bhartiya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal that conducts the examinations. ``After successfully completing these different levels, they can polish their talents by training under performing artistes. These renowned personalities are not expected to teach anybody from scratch, the groundwork has to be done by the pupil from music schools such as ours,'' he explains.

Along with fulfilling its objective of a training institution, the school also furthers its aim of taking music to the common man through annual music festivals and other anniversary celebrations. ``Given today's lifestyle, one does observe fewer people devoting all their time to music. But surprisingly, more are taking to the classical stream,'' opines Marathe.

And though the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya has undergone changes in its functioning, its inherent identity remains the same : keeping the flame of the Gwalior Gharana music burning bright.