Karnataka is a state in the southwestern region of India. With an antiquity that dates to the paleolithic, Karnataka has been home to some of the most powerful empires of ancient and medieval India. The philosophers and musical bards patronized by these empires launched socio-religious and literary movements which have endured to the present day. Karnataka has contributed significantly to both forms of Indian classical music, the Carnatic and Hindustani traditions.

In North Western corner of Karnataka is the district of Uttara Kannada with a mix of coastal plains and western ghats. The Western ghats section of the district is also called “malenadu” which is full of lush green forests, serene waterfalls and coconut and arecanut plantations. In the center part of this district is the town of Yellapur. Ummachgi village is around 25 KMs from Yellapur on the Yellapur to Sirsi road. If we take a deviations from Ummachgi after around 2 KMs, we can reach Kotemane village in the middle of greenery.

There are around 15 houses in Kotemane in a row with a beautiful balamuri Mahaganapathi temple in the beginning. Majority of the family’s main occupation in Kotemane is “Paurohitya” i.e facilitating hindu religious ceremonies as priest. Each of these families also have a piece of land given as a charter by Swarnavalli Samsthana, a religious center in this part of the district. To sustain and grow the the vedic heritage, members of these families had started “Sree Matha Vedic and Sanskrit School” few decades ago. Over the time, this school has grown tremendously with its own library which helped not only the students, even the public were able to get benefit to enhance their knowledge. This school hosted many speeches and debates among many scholars and acted as a great platform for the various innovative academic activities. With the help of this school many of the students have achieved higher education on this field and have reached many of the esteemed institutions in many part of the world to spread the vedic knowledge. Families in Kotemane celebrate all the hindu festivals together with great joy and that helps to pass the tradition to next generation. They also enjoy the traditional forms of entertainment Yakshagana,Talamaddale, Hindustani Classical Music etc in the temple premises.

Late Shripad Bhat was born and brought up in this culturally rich environment. He wanted to pursue the family tradition of Paurohitya and agriculture when other kids of his age were getting attracted to the city life. He was married to Rekha Bhat from nearby Balehadda village.

Rekha Bhat had a beautiful voice from the childhood and she was interested in the music in the early age. She started studying classical music when she was in high school itself. By the time she had completed here B.Com Degree, she had become a accomplished Hindustani Classical vocalist with the help of music lessons from Sri R.P Asundi, Pandit Shripad Hegde and Hasanagi Ganapati Bhat. With the objective of passing this music knowledge to the students in this remote of part of the country, Rekha and Shripad couple had started the Shri Mahaganapathi Hindustani Music School at Kotemane under the Mahaganapathi Music Trust.This school provided a music education platform not only for younger kids, even the adult music enthusiasts started taking music lessons here. Annual celebration of this school provided a great opportunity for students to hear from external artists as well as to showcase their own talent. Along with music education, with the vision of providing quality education to the rural area kids with a focus on teaching personality development, communication, art and crafts, yoga, yakshagana, and a emphasis on native languages like Kannada and Sanskrit, Mahaganapathi Music Trust has started a school called “Manaswini Vidyanilaya”. This school has accreditation from the Karnataka state Government in India (registration number BK IV 34/07-08, R No:18/20 16-17)

Future plans for this school includes gurukul type of teaching that includes accommodation for the economically backward students.