C. R. Vyas

Chintaman Raghunath Vyas
Birth name	Chintaman Raghunath Vyas
Born	9 November 1924
Origin	Osmanabad, Maharashtra, India
Died	10 January 2002 (aged 77)
Genres	Hindustani classical music
Occupation(s)	singer

Chintaman Raghunath Vyas (Marathi: चिंतामण रघुनाथ व्यास; 9 November 1924 – 10 January 2002), popularly known as C. R. Vyas, was an Indian classical singer. He was renowned for singing khyal style.

C. R. Vyas was born in Osmanabad, Maharashtra, into a family of Sanskrit scholars and Hari kirtankars. He was influenced by the singing, of his father and grandfather, episodes from Ramayan and Mahabharata.

He had his initial training from Govindrao Bhatambrekar of the Kirana gharana for a decade. Then he learnt from Rajamrambuva Paradkar of Gwalior Gharana. While he was training in the Gwalior style of singing, he was impressed by Jagannathbuwa Purohit who belonged to Agra Gharana and started learning from him. He also got the guidance from Yeshwantbuva Mirashi. He was benefited by other scholar musicians namely Acharya S N Ratanjankar, Chidanand Nagarkar, S. C. R. Bhat and K. G. Ginde.

C. R. Vyas was having an open throated voice and has created his own style with the nice blend of different flavours from all these gharanas. However, the influence of the Gwalior gayaki, is quite prominent. His musical performance clearly shows his efforts, honesty and devotion towards music. Music was penance for him and a pathway to the almighty. Music was his first love, first commitment and his first passion.

He had been employed at ITC in a white collar job. Music was not a primary vocation. In his own words, "In our time we did not think of earning either fame or money through music". He was a leading artist in AIR and on TV. He has participated in major musical events in India as well as abroad.

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