Srikrishna Pahalwan

Srikrishna Pahalwan was a performer of nautanki. He was born in Unnao district, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 1891. He came from a family of wrestlers. However, after moving to Kanpur, he grew fascinated with khyalbazi, or contests of improvised versifying. He gained a name as a composer of such poems. As a 16-year-old, he wrote an entire Nautanki, a biography of Hakikat Rai, the leader of the reformist Arya Samaj. It was staged in 1913, the year that he formed his Srikrishna Sangeet Company, which began to draw huge crowds across India. He scripted or commissioned over 250 plays, done by other Nautanki troupes too, their tunes popular everywhere. He managed the company and single-handedly raised the image of the form. Srikrishna Pahalwan died in the year 1972.

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