Saptashree Sangeet Vidyalaya
H-tower, French Apartments, Bhangel, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201307, India
Saptashree Sangeet Vidyalaya is a small, sun-lit learning sanctuary tucked into a quiet lane behind the perennially-busy Karishma Chowk in Pune’s verdant Kothrud suburb. Peer past the jasmine-seller’s kiosk and you’ll notice a sandalwood-colored door etched with a seven-leaf motif—the crest that lends the school its Sanskrit-derived name. Step inside and the city’s honking fades, replaced by the soft rustle of tablas warming up, harmoniums breathing to life, and a gentle clacking of talam sticks keeping perfect mathematical time.
Founded in 1987 by the late Pandit Shivprasad Gandharv and his vocalist-wife Vidushi Lakshmi Gandharv, Saptashree has resisted becoming a franchise. Instead of chalk-board rows, classes are held in four intimate rooms named after legendary ragas: Yaman, Darbari, Hamsadhwani and Malkauns. Seating is traditional—students cross-legged on ocher dhurries, sheet music and tanpura-remotes to the side. Old teak windows, framed by creeping money plants, filter just enough monsoon light to make the brass figurines of Saraswati sparkle without glare.
Instruction spans Hindustani classical vocal (Khayal, Dhrupad, Thumri), Sitar, Violin, Tabla, Bansuri, and Harmonium, each taught as parallel streams running on a rigorous gurukul timetable that respects the guru-shishya parampara. Students start as young as six or as “late” as sixty-four, progressing through five graded levels (Prarambhik to Visharad) that follow the Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya syllabus, with special modular options in light classical and folk. Fees are intentionally moderate; scholarships—quietly funded by well-wishers—allow children from nearby slum resettlements to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with tech-sector parents paying full tuition.
Thursday evenings command special reverence. At 7:30 sharp, the main studio’s red-oxide floor is wiped with rose-water, lamps are lit, and a free baithak begins. Seasoned alumni returning from Bangalore or Dubai tune their instruments alongside wide-eyed newcomers, rendering ragas under the benevolent gaze of a vintage oil painting of Pt. Omkarnath Thakur. Fresh khichdi and kesari bhaat—cooked by Dharini tai (the Gandharvs’ daughter, now principal) in the adjoining courtyard kitchen—signal closure of the night, turning music school briefly into extended family.
Technology gets its respectful place without eclipsing tradition: microphones for voice training analysis, apps for tala practice, and an in-house archive of rare 78-rpm digitized recordings preserved on a wall-mounted touchscreen labelled “पूर्वज”。Wi-Fi quietly exists, but only passwords handed personally by a teacher after your third month of attendance, ensuring commitment over casual scrolling.
Community outreach pulses strongly. During the Ganapati festival, students lead percussion ensembles through Kothrud’s lanes; each December a “Shruti
Sammelan” pop-up classical busker series is staged in nearby coffee shops and metro stations, collecting funds for children’s cancer wards. The message on the foyer wall says it all in Devanagari calligraphy—“संगीत से समाज” (“Society through Music”)—and the hundred-plus smiling donor names stuck beneath are a festival of stickers, testament that a tiny doorsill of faith can turn an ordinary Pune by-lane into a living, breathing note in the city’s vast cultural symphony.
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- Published: August 12, 2025
