[1] She was awarded the highest award of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama, for lifetime achievement, the 1979 Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship[2] and the Padma Shri in 1999, by Government of India.
and Berar, the oldest child of Gajanan Amberdekar, a judge, and Sundari Subedar.
She received training in Hindustani classical music from various teachers, including Pandit Rajabhaiya Poochwale of Gwalior gharana, Ustad Vilayat Hussain Khan of Agra gharana, and Pandit Anant Manohar Joshi and Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan (d. 1964) of the Rampur gharana.
During her tenure, she supervised numerous research programs in the field of music, as well published several books on the subject.
[1] She died on 28 February 2007, at a private hospital in Kolkata, after a brief bronchial illness at the age of 91; she was survived by her daughter.