Real name: Nathu Buwa Amravatikar

Nathu Buwa Amravatikar
Birth - circa 1895, Death – 1944

- A biographical note written by Dr Chaitanya Kunte, Pune, India
(keshavchaitanya@gmail.com)

Nathhu Buwa Amaravatikar belongs to a family of musicians who practiced Kathak dance and Tabla. The family hailed from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. His elder brother Tularam was a Tabla player. Nathu Buwa came to Amravati when he was 8-years old. He was called as ‘Nathu Buwa Amravatikar’ or ‘Nathu Buwa Tawde’. He started learning music with Namdev Buwa Amravatikar who in turn was a disciple of Ustad Maula Baksh of Baroda state. Nathu Buwa had a high pitched, sonorous and flexible voice. Upon Namdev Buwa’s demise in 1926, Nathu Buwa started ‘Namdev Buwa
Prasadik Gayan Samaj’, a music school in the memory of his Guru, in Amaravati. Around 1932, he came to Mumbai and joined ‘Yashvant Sangeet Natak Mandali’ of Shankar Rao Sarnaik. He acted in a few plays. But soon left the theater company. During 1932 to 1935, he was a regular broadcaster on Bombay Radio. He started a music school in Charni road area of Mumbai called ‘Aryan Music College’. But he left Mumbai for concert tours, with giving charge of this music school to his nephew, Dattoba Tawde. Dattoba ran this music school for many years, but with the name ‘Adarsh Sangeet Vidyalaya’. Nathu Buwa used to visit Ujjain, Indore, Aheri state, Parva state for yearly concerts on some special occasions. Around 1935-36, Nathu Buwa left Mumbai for concerts and returned to Amaravati. Soon after that, he shifted to Nagpur. He started ‘National Music College’, a music school situated at Aluwala building in Sitabardi area of Nagpur. He published a book ‘Sangeet Sadhana’ in 1944. His major disciples in the Vidarbha were Dattoba Tawde (nephew), Prahlad Kolhapure, Namdev Varekar, Mahadev Patil, Gajanan Kothekar, Madhusudan Tamhankar. Nathu Buwa suffered from Pyorrhea and was admitted to Mayo Hospital in Nagpur, where he passed away in 1944. He has cut 78 rpm shellac records on Broadcast & Columbia labels around 1937-1940

References:
1. Mangarulkar, N. R. (1976). Vaidarbhiya Sangeetkar – Part 2. Vijaya Mangarulkar, Nagpur.
2. Information of gramophone records provided by Dr Suresh Chandvankar.