Jal K. Balaporia

Born in Billimoria, Pandit Jal K. Balaporia has dedicated himself to the study of classical singing from the tender age of 6. In 1938 he started to follow the traditional Guru-Shishya Parampara training at the feet of vocalists of the Gwalior school: first Sitaram Eknath Pandit, then Shri Ghanekar who was a student of Krishnarao Mulay. From 1944 he received the lessons of Dr Harihar Gangadhar Moghe, an heir to an important part of this very ancient school through his teacher Shri Eknath Vishnu Pandit. An artist on All India Radio since the fifties, he has dedicated himself to teaching: many students are following his guidance at Bombay University. Pandit Jal K. Balaporia is one of the very few artists to have kept untouched the original Gwalior style. Not only has he preserved the original microtones, rhythms and tempos on which the poems have been composed, but he is also the guardian of a fantastic amount of khyals and other poetic styles typical of the Gwalior school such as chaturang, ashtapadi, tappa, tarana on slow tempo, the work of the best poets of the last six centuries.