Dhrupad Sansthan

Dhrupad Sansthan is a residential school for dhrupad established by Umakant, Ramakant and Akhilesh Gundecha near Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. It teaches dhrupad vocal music and pakhawaj to Indian and international students living on the campus.

The school offers full-time residential training in dhrupad singing and pakhawaj in the guru-shishya manner, without fixed syllabus or examinations, alongside shorter workshops and visits. In a 2026 interview Umakant Gundecha described a campus of nearly three acres with about sixty student rooms and a communal kitchen, and said students from around thirty countries have been associated with it. The gurukul states plainly on its own site that it awards no degrees, and describes itself as an inclusive space for students from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, each taught individually.

The gurukul says its hostel can house up to a hundred students, that musicians and other artists are regularly invited for seminars, lectures and in-house concerts, and that it keeps a library for the study of dhrupad theory alongside a longer effort to document and archive the music's history, texts and recordings. Umakant Gundecha and Akhilesh Gundecha are listed as its two present gurus; after Ramakant Gundecha's death his son Anant Ramakant Gundecha has performed in jugalbandi with his uncle.

Dhrupad Sansthan was inaugurated on 4 November 2004 by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, and is held by the Dhrupad Sansthan Bhopal Nyas. The brothers founded it after their own training at the Madhya Pradesh government Dhrupad Kendra in Bhopal under Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar, explicitly modelling it on that experience. Its most recent hostel, Ustad Zakiruddin Khan Sadharini Niwas, was inaugurated by Ustad Zakir Hussain. The Tata Trusts described the Sansthan as having trained young musicians through a fellowship scheme for over two decades. Checked September 2026: the gurukul's own site is live and carries an admission form.

The idea was conceived in the late 1990s. The brothers' own account traces it to their training under Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar at the Dhrupad Kendra — the constant presence of their gurus in daily practice is the thing they set out to reproduce for their own disciples.