Indudhar Nirody

Pandit Indudhar Nirody, a senior Hindustani classical vocalist of the Agra gharana and a 2014 Kendra Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee, died in Panvel, Maharashtra, on 22 September 2026 after a brief illness. He was 91. Star of Mysore and other Karnataka outlets reported the news the following day, noting the deep affection he had earned among Mysuru's music lovers during more than two decades living and teaching there.

Born on 11 July 1935, Nirody trained under leading Agra-gharana and allied masters including Pandit K.G. Ginde, Pandit S.C.R. Bhatt, Pandit Chidanand Nagarkar and Pandit Dinkar Kaikini. He built a reputation for traditional khayal singing while also commanding dhrupad-dhamar and thumri forms that sit at the heart of the Agra repertoire. For many years he combined a professional career at the Life Insurance Corporation of India with rigorous musical practice; after retiring from LIC he devoted himself fully to performance, teaching and archival work.

Around 2002 he settled in Mysuru, living first in Kuvempunagar and later in Saraswathipuram until 2024. In that city he became a quiet centre of Hindustani music culture, giving lec-dems on the specialities of the Agra gharana and training a circle of disciples who carried the style forward. In his eighties he completed a project that became his signature contribution to the tradition: rendering and recording all 1,896 compositions from Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande's Kramik Pustak Malika, a preservation effort often referred to as Samarpan. Observers described the undertaking as both an act of devotion and a practical digital archive for future students.

In 2014 he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Hindustani vocal music, and in 2015 an honorary doctorate from Dr. Gangubai Hangal Music and Performing Arts University. Among his prominent disciples are Vidushi V. Aditi Kaikini, Pandit Vyasamurthy Katti, Pandit Veerabhadraiah Hiremath and Dr. M.S. Bhaskar. A documentary on his life and music, made jointly by Dr. Manohar and Ranjit Sethu, circulates on YouTube alongside numerous concert recordings of ragas such as Kedar, Jaijaiwanti, Behag and Shyam Kalyan.

He is survived by his wife, Padmavathi Nirody, and by students and listeners across Karnataka and Maharashtra who regarded him as a true siddhipurusha of the Agra gharana - a musician who treated the art as a spiritual discipline and left behind both performances and a systematically recorded teaching corpus.