SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 3 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

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Who is credited with developing the modern notation system for Hindustani classical music and documenting compositions in the Kramik Pustak Maalika?

(a)Ustad Allauddin Khan of Maihar Gharana
(b)Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar of Gwalior
(c)Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande of Bombay
(d)Saint Tyagaraja of Carnatic Tradition

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860–1936), born at Walkeshwar in Bombay, wrote the Kramik Pustak Malika, a detailed textbook of Hindustani music in six parts that describes the important ragas.

He also devised the notation system that became the standard way of writing Hindustani music down, and grouped its ragas into ten thaats.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Ustad Allauddin Khan of Maihar Gharana — Ustad Allauddin Khan is the great guru of the Maihar gharana, remembered as a teacher of instrumentalists. The Kramik Pustak Malika and the standard notation are Bhatkhande's, not his.
(b)
Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar of Gwalior — Vishnu Digambar Paluskar founded the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya at Lahore in 1901 and wrote Sangeet Bal Prakash. He was Bhatkhande's contemporary, but the Kramik Pustak Malika is not his work.
(d)
Saint Tyagaraja of Carnatic Tradition — Tyagaraja was a composer of Carnatic music, the southern tradition. The question is about a Hindustani notation and a Hindustani textbook.

Concept

Hindustani music was long passed on orally, from teacher to student. Bhatkhande set out to put its theory and repertoire on paper.

His Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati, a four-volume commentary in Marathi, is still a standard text. The six-part Kramik Pustak Malika is his graded textbook of ragas.

His ten-thaat scheme sorts ragas by parent scale. He modelled it on the Carnatic melakarta system, which has 72 parent scales, so the two do not match one to one.

Option (b) is the one that tempts. Paluskar, Bhatkhande's contemporary and also from present-day Maharashtra, wrote music books for students too, including Sangeet Bal Prakash in three volumes. The Kramik Pustak Malika, though, is Bhatkhande's.

Key facts

V. N. Bhatkhande was born at Walkeshwar, Bombay, in 1860 and died in 1936.
His Kramik Pustak Malika was published in six parts.
He grouped Hindustani ragas into ten thaats.
V. D. Paluskar founded the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in Lahore on 5 May 1901.

Study next

Bhatkhande's ten thaats and the Carnatic melakarta schemeV. D. Paluskar, the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and Sangeet Bal PrakashGharanas of Hindustani music: Gwalior, Kirana and Maihar

Common traps

Choosing Paluskar because he too was a reformer who wrote music books for students.
Missing that Tyagaraja belongs to the Carnatic tradition, not the Hindustani.

Paluskar, the tempting distractor here, is the keyed answer at 19 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.17 (the teacher of Omkarnath Thakur) and 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.17 (the author of Sangeet Bal Prakash). Keep the two reformers' works apart.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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