The first Gandharva Mahavidyalaya was established in Lahore in 1901 by Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, a pioneer of Hindustani classical music. His aim was to democratize music education, taking it out of the gharana tradition (restricted to hereditary families) and making it accessible to the general public through institutional training. Later, branches were opened in other cities like Bombay and Delhi, greatly influencing the spread of classical music in modern India.