Mogubai Kurdikar Biography 
Mogubai Kurdikar was a renowned Hindustani classical music vocalist of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana. She was born on July 15, 1904 in Goa. Noted vocalist, Kishori Amonkar is the daughter of Kurdikar. Kishori was the disciple of her mother. Suhasini Mulgaonkar, Babanrao Haldankar, Padma Talwalkar, Kamal Tambe, Wamanrao Deshpande, Arun Dravid and Kaushalya Manjeshwar were the noted disciples of Kurdikar.
Mogubai was only 10 years old when her mother arranged a music teacher for her at nearby temple. He was a wandering holyman and she learnt lessons from Zambavli temple. Later her mother took her to a traveling theater company, Chandreshwar Bhootnath Sangeet Mandali where Mogubai joined as an actress. Very soon her mother died. It was her mother’s dream to see Mogubai as a famous singer. The theater company soon went bankrupt, and the rival Satarkar Stree Sangeet Mandali hired Mogu. But due to personal indifferences with one of its senior actresses, she was expelled and she moved to Sangli. For a brief period, she learnt music from Inayat Khan of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana though, it too terminated soon.
Once legend Alladiya Khan happened to hear Mogu singing one of the recitals taught by Inayat Khan at her residence. He was frequently visiting a doctor for treatment and he regularly heard Mogu singing. One day he stopped, introduced himself and offered to teach her. Though he was an established vocalist during that time, Mogu hadn’t heard about him, yet agreed to become his disciple. Slowly she understood what Alladiya Khan really was and when Alladiya Khan went back to Mumbai after treatment, she just followed him. But elite disciples over there didn’t allow Alladiya to accept Mogu as his student. However after a lot of drama, Alladiya taught her till the end of his life. Though she faced a lot of resistance from jealous people there, she achieved stardom and came to be known as "the queen". She has received Sangeet Natak Academy award and Padma Bhushan.
Published: N/A
Updated: February 21, 2014
