Anjanibai Malpekar Biography 
Anjanibai Malpekar was a noted Indian classical singer and the first lady to win Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship. She belonged to Bhendibazaar gharana of Hindustani classical music She became popular as a beauty through Raja Ravi Varma paintings also, an artist well known for sketching beautiful females in a traditional way. He did a series of paintings with her as muse, including "Lady in the Moonlight", "Lady Playing Swarbat", "Mohini" and "The Heartbroken", of which "Lady in the Moonlight" is immensely popular till now. She modeled for him during his stay in Mumbai in 1901 and 1903. As an artist she has received numerous awards of which Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1958 became most popular.
Malpekar was born on April 22, 1883, in Malpe in Goa in a musical family. She was a disciple of Ustad Nazeer Khan of the gharana and started formal learning at the age of 8. She gave her first stage performance at the age of 16 in 1899. In those days, women of "respectable families" never sang in public. But she didn’t care the society and went on to become the leading female vocalist of that period. Apart from being a gifted singer, she was known for her beauty as well. When painter M. V. Dhurandhar did an oil painting of her, Raja Ravi Varma too became inspired and portrayed her as Indian beauty in numerous paintings in a period of about three years. Those paintings were well noted. But she began to receive harassment from male dominated audience that time and she took a small break from concerts as well.
She married Seth Wasanji Ved. After the death of her guru in 1920, she lost interest in singing. Her last performance was at Town Hall, Mumbai in 1923. Then she turned a teacher and taught a lot of disciples. Kumar Gandharva was her first disciple. Other noted disciples include - Kishori Amonkar, Begum Akhtar and Naina Devi.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 06, 2014
