Pandit Shriram Umdekar is a Top Grade Artist of All India Radio and Doordarshan, a renowned Sitar player and Guru, and an accomplished Rudra Veena and Surbahar player of the Hindustani classical tradition. He is the youngest son of Gwalior Rajdarbar Gayak, Gayanacharya Pandit Balabhau Umdekar ‘Kundal Guru,’ and belongs to a distinguished musical lineage of Gwalior in which music has been preserved as vidya, parampara, and sadhana.
Born on 19 March 1951, Pandit Shriram Umdekar received his early training from his father, Pandit Balabhau Umdekar ‘Kundal Guru,’ through whom he imbibed the rigour, depth, and seriousness that the classical tradition demands. His musical sensibility was further nurtured by his mother, Shrimati Radhabai Umdekar, through whom he developed a deep and natural affinity for the sitar. He also learnt for a period from Pandit Vinayakrao Phadke. A defining passage in his musical life was his devoted discipleship under the legendary Ustad Amjad Ali Khan Sahab, one of the great Sarod masters of the era, from whom he received years of rigorous guidance.
Pandit Shriram Umdekar is admired for a style of playing that is at once deeply shastra-sammat, aesthetically refined, and strikingly creative. His alapchari is expansive and unhurried, his taans finely crafted and musical in their intent, and his gats carry both freshness and the firm grounding of classical grammar. What marks his baaj with particular distinction is his unwavering commitment to raag-shuddhata, the raga’s identity, dignity, and emotional truth remain fully intact in his hands. His music speaks equally to the learned and to the sincere listener.
He served as a Staff Artist of All India Radio from form 1979 to 2011, contributing through national broadcast media to the sustained dissemination of Indian classical music over more than three decades. During this association he created and presented the notable series ‘Naad Shatak’ and ‘Baaje Bundeli Ke,’ carrying classical music with both reach and dignity to a wide listening public.
Pandit Shriram Umdekar has performed across the most prestigious platforms of Indian classical music in major sabhas, national festivals, and cultural celebrations of historic significance as well as on distinguished international occasions. The following are only some among his many presentations across a long and active performing career.
In 1987, he travelled to Mauritius as part of an Indian cultural delegation on the occasion of the country’s Independence Day celebrations an event graced by the then Vice President of India, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma marking one of the significant international occasions of his performing life. His music has also reached a wider public through major national platforms such as the Radio Sangeet Sammelan and Doordarshan’s Akhil Bhartiya Sangeet Sabha, and a documentary on his life and art was made under the Amrutam Raga Project, dedicated to artists of the Gwalior gharana tradition. He has further contributed to music literature as the editor of Raag Suman Mala, Part I and Part II, the release of which was inaugurated by the Cultural Minister of Madhya Pradesh at the Tansen Sangeet Samaroh.
What he transmits to a student is not merely technique, but a way of being with music. He does not teach a student to reproduce he shapes a musician to think, to feel, and to stand independently before the raga with understanding and authority. In the true gurukul spirit, he has given without measure: his time extended without the clock’s constraint, his home opened to those who needed it, his care extended even to a student’s daily sustenance when the moment called for it. And through all of this, he has never once made his knowledge a matter of transaction he has taught without fees, in the full spirit of seva and parampara, because for him the living transmission of music is itself a form of worship.
His musical understanding spans a remarkable range of disciplines gayan, sitar, Rudra Veena, Surbahar, bansuri, santoor, tabla, and more reflecting the rare breadth of knowledge that only a lifelong immersion in the tradition can produce.
Many of his disciples have grown into accomplished and respected artists in their own right.
Among his students are Smt. Shashwati Mandal, Pandit Santosh Sant, Dr. Radhika Veena Sadhika, Sushri Geetika Umdekar Masurkar, Shri Amit Garg, Deepanshu Sharma, Dr. Atul Gupta, Sushri Shruti Adhikari, Ninad Adhikari, Shri Ujwal Nagar, Late Sudesh Kumar Singh, Manoj Nayak, Manoj Kothekar, Alla Rakhha Khan, Dr. Ripu Daman, and Aman Verma.
In recognition of his lifelong contribution to performance, pedagogy, and cultural preservation, Pandit Shriram Umdekar has been honoured by numerous respected institutions. His honours reflect the esteem in which he is held as a senior artist, teacher, and custodian of tradition.
SELECTED PERFORMANCES
• Tansen Samaroh — 1971, 1989, 2008, 2022
• Madhya Pradesh Sangeet Samaroh, Jabalpur — 2006
• Gwalior Gharana Sangeet Samaroh — Dakshin Madhya Kshetra Sanskrutik Parishad, Nagpur
• Pandit Ramswaroop Ratoniya Sangeet Samaroh
• Maihar Allauddin Khan Sangeet Samaroh
• Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
• Vishwa Sangeet Samaroh
• Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior — Najrana Yaad-e Programme
• Mauritius Independence Day Cultural Programme — 1987, in the presence of Vice President Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma
• He has performed in many cities across India, including Kolkata, Ahmedabad,Ayodhya, and Rewa.
HONOURS & RECOGNITIONS
• Honoured by Shashkiya Madhav Sangeet Mahavidyalaya at Shatabdi Varsh Sangeet Samaroh — 2018
• Honoured by Bhartiya Sangeetalay — 2019
• Honoured by Shankar Gandharva Mahavidyalaya at Basant Utsav
• Felicitated as Vishesh Visheshagya by Madhav Sangeet Mahavidyalaya
• Pt. Sitaramsharan Samman — Raagayan, 2022
• Pandit Eknath Sarolkar Smruti Jeevan Gaurav Samman — 2023
• Honoured by Raja Mansingh Tomar Sangeet Evam Kala Vishwavidyalaya on Tabla Divas — 2021
• Honoured by Gwalior District Administration for contribution to music
• Recognised at Swar Shrungar Prakhyat Sangeet Sadhak Pandit Vinayakrao Phadke Smruti Sangeet evam Samman Samaroh — 2016
• Honoured by Sanskar Bharati — 2018
• Sangeet Sadguru Samman- Janaki Sangeet Sansthan Trust, Sangeetotsav 2025
• Shreshth Kala Guru Samman- Guru Shishya Parampara Sangeet Sansthan, March 2026