Anjanibai Malpekar

Anjanibai Malpekar (22 April 1883 - 7 August 1974) was a pioneering Indian classical vocalist of the Bhendibazaar gharana. Born in Malpe, Pernem in Portuguese Goa, she came from the Goan Kalavant community; both her grandmother Gujabai and mother Nabubai were respected names in music circles. At the age of eight, she began her musical training under Ustad Nazir Khan, one of the founders of the Bhendibazaar gharana, whose style emphasises tonal inflections (shrutis) to bring out the unique aesthetics of each raga.

Anjanibai made her professional debut at age 16 in Mumbai. In 1904 she developed a fear of singing in public and temporarily lost her voice, which she regained after a year. The death of her guru Ustad Nazir Khan in 1920 was a great blow; her 1923 performance at Mumbai's Town Hall was her last public concert. She later returned to music as a revered teacher, with notable students including Kumar Gandharva, Kishori Amonkar, and Begum Akhtar. In 1958 she became the first woman to receive the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, India's highest honour for the performing arts. Celebrated for her beauty, she was the muse of painters Raja Ravi Varma and M.V. Dhurandhar.