Jagannathbuwa Purohit

Jagannathbuwa Purohit more popularly known as ‘Gunidas’ to Hindustani music aficionados was perhaps one of the most prolific composers of khayal in the second half of the twentieth century. Born at Hyderabad in a financially unfortunate family environment on March 12, 1904, Jagannathbuwa studied music initially with Muhammad Ali. While in Hyderbabad, he also learnt from Shabbu Khan and Ghulam Muhammad Talwandiwale. His last guru was Vilayat Hussein Khan of the Agra gharana. He had also studied tabla.

He collected a rich repertoire of raags and compositions from his gurus and taught these to numerous disciples, many of whom were prominent artistes. Noteworthy among his disciples are Ram Marathe, Jitendra Abhisheki, Manik Varma, C.R. Vyas, Balakram, Prabhudev Sardar and Yeshwantbuwa Joshi. Many artistes pursuing other forms of vocal music like bhavgeet and songs from Marathi theatre were also his disciples. His sole disciple in the field of tabla playing is Suresh ‘Bhai’ Gaitonde.

Jagannathbuwa had also worked in the music departments of various film companies.