vasundhara komakali, née vasundhara shrikhande, was born on 23 may 1931 in a music loving family in jamshedpur, the largest city in the indian state of jharkhand. her early years were in kolkata where she met kumar gandharva when she was 12 years old, at the all india music conference and informed him of her desire to learn classical music under the renowned musician. gandharva asked her to come to mumbai but the world war ii had already begun which prevented her from moving to mumbai. staying in kolkata, she learnt music and started performing for the kolkata station of the all india radio. after the war, she moved to mumbai in 1946 and started training under b. r. deodhar, a prominent vocalist and musicologist, as gandharva could not find time to teach her during that time. later, she returned to gandharva for training and married the musician in 1962.