Admittedly, all of these efforts were influenced heavily by patriarchal propensities with the result that women’s music education was considered a favourable change in order to maintain a happy marital home and prevent men from engaging with hereditary women performers. In fact, Kaikhushro Navrojee Kabrajee, the founder of the Parsi Gayan Uttejak Mandali, a music club established at Bombay in 1870, also exhorted Parsi men to encourage women in their families to take to learning Hindustani music. Contemporary newspaper reports do not mention the inclusion of any performances in this conference, but discussions were held on issues pertaining to the inclusion of music training in academic schools and universities, thus suitably demonstrating that steps towards propagating music education among women from middle- and upper-class homes were being considered even in the early twentieth century. Similarly, in the context of women’s music conferences, one such conference was organised at the Jinnah Memorial Hall in Bombay under the aegis of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya way back in 1929. For instance, innumerable miniature paintings depict women percussionists playing instruments that resemble the dholak and the pakhawaj, indicates that these instruments were played also by women. But was she the first female tabla player to have performed in public?įrankly, it would be hazardous to claim first position for anything in the Indian context given the fact that our long history always reveals a similar occurence in the past. Similarly, the mention of a female tabla player took many by surprise as this too was relatively unheard of in those days. Some felt that this was the first occasion that a women’s music conference was being held, and there were others who pointed out that there may have been precedents to this. The article seems to have intrigued and excited several readers because a programme focusing mainly on women performers was a novelty in that period.