Pune: Indian singing legend Pandit Bhimsen Joshi died yesterday after nearly a month in hospital. As thousands queued up to pay their last respects to the 88-year-old music maestro, artists across the country described the loss as the sunset of Indian classical music.
Joshi, who was awarded the country's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 2008, died at Pune's Sahyadri Hospital at 8.05am, his doctor Atul Joshi said.
Joshi, who would have celebrated his birdayon February 4, was rushed to the hospital December 31. He was suffering from age-related ailments, including kidney problems, and had been admitted to the intensive care unit.
He was on ventilator and underwent periodic dialysis in the past 25 days.
"However, since Saturday evening, his condition deteriorated and he started sinking despite all our efforts. He breathed his last at 8.05am," Dr. Atul Joshi said.
His close family and friends were by his bedside when he died. Calling him a "doyen of Hindustani classical music", President Pratibha Patil said: "The nation has lost one of its greatest and most popular classical vocalists." A "deeply grieved" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: "I join music lovers across the world in mourning the demise of this iconic vocalist. In his passing away, the nation and the music world has lost a towering musical genius."
A practitioner of the Kirana gharana (style), Joshi was known for his mellifluous khayals (a genre).
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