Dhondutai Kulkarni, Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana music exponent dead

Mumbai: Dhondutai Kulkarni, one of the last living exponents of the famed `Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana` music and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award laureate, died here Sunday morning.

She was 86 and the end came due to old age complications at her home in north Mumbai suburb of Borivli, family sources said. The iconic musician Alladiya Khan, who founded the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana, made it unique by its full-throated singing, complicated taans and a large repertoire of ragas. Popularly known as `Gaan-Yogini`, Dhondutai was born in Kolhapur and her father initiated her into singing and she started performing for All India Radio at the age of eight. Later, she was trained by Bhurji Khan and Ustad Azizuddin Khan, the son and grandson, respectively, of Alladiya Khan, besides Laxmibai Jadhav and later Kesarbai Kerkar.