Famous Hindus Born in August: Birthdays by Date

Famous Hindus born in August include the musicologist Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (10 August), Sri Aurobindo (15 August), Peshwa Bajirao I and the musician Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (both 18 August), and the yoga researcher Swami Kuvalayananda (30 August). This page lists people whose Gregorian birth d

HinduTone Dharma DeskNovember 12, 20263 min read

August birthdays at a glance

Date	Name	Born	Known for
10 August 1860	Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande	Bombay (Mumbai)	Musicologist; the thaat system of Hindustani ragas
15 August 1872	Sri Aurobindo	Calcutta (Kolkata)	Revolutionary, yogi and philosopher
18 August 1700	Peshwa Bajirao I	Maharashtra	Maratha general and Peshwa (1720–1740)
18 August 1872	Vishnu Digambar Paluskar	Kurundwad	Singer; founder of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya
30 August 1883	Swami Kuvalayananda	Dabhoi, Gujarat	Pioneer of scientific research on yoga; founder of Kaivalyadhama

10 August: Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860–1936)

A lawyer by training, Bhatkhande travelled across India collecting compositions from hereditary musicians and studying old Sanskrit texts on music. He classified Hindustani ragas under ten parent scales, the thaats, and published the compositions he gathered in notation in the Kramik Pustak Malika and his theory in Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati. He died in Bombay in 1936.

15 August: Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950)

Born Aurobindo Ghose in Calcutta and educated in England, he worked in Baroda and then joined the nationalist movement in Bengal. Held in Alipore jail in 1908–09 during the bomb-case trial and acquitted, he spoke afterwards, in his Uttarpara speech of 1909, of his spiritual experience in jail and of the Sanatana Dharma. In 1910 he moved to Pondicherry, where he gave himself to yoga; the Sri Aurobindo Ashram grew around him. His works include The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga and the epic poem Savitri. His birthday is also India's Independence Day.

18 August: Peshwa Bajirao I (1700–1740)

The son of Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath, Bajirao became Peshwa, chief minister to Chhatrapati Shahu, in 1720 at the age of nineteen. In twenty years of campaigns he carried Maratha power into Malwa, Gujarat and Bundelkhand, defeated the Nizam at Palkhed in 1728 and reached Delhi in 1737. He died on campaign at Raverkhedi on the Narmada in 1740.

18 August: Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872–1931)

Born at Kurundwad in present-day Kolhapur district, Paluskar trained in the Gwalior style of Hindustani music. In 1901 he founded the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in Lahore, a music school open to the public at a time when music was taught mostly within hereditary families. He developed his own notation, sang bhajans widely, and sang Vande Mataram at sessions of the Indian National Congress. He died at Miraj in 1931.

30 August: Swami Kuvalayananda (1883–1966)

Born Jagannath Ganesh Gune at Dabhoi, near Vadodara, he studied yoga under Paramahamsa Madhavadasji and set out to test its practices by laboratory methods. In 1924 he founded the Kaivalyadhama institute at Lonavala and the journal Yoga-Mimamsa. He died at Lonavala in 1966.

What about saints whose jayanti follows the Hindu calendar?

Many saints' and deities' days are kept by the tithi, so their Gregorian date changes every year. Krishna Janmashtami and Tulsidas Jayanti often fall in August. We list them on our festival pages for each year rather than here.

How we choose people for this page

The Famous Hindus section is for people who were Hindu by their own statement or by uncontested record. For each name we give the date from a reliable source. Where a person was born into a Hindu family but did not speak publicly about faith, we say only that.

Frequently asked questions

Which famous Hindus were born in August?

V. N. Bhatkhande (10 August), Sri Aurobindo (15 August), Peshwa Bajirao I and Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (18 August), and Swami Kuvalayananda (30 August).

Why is 15 August special for Sri Aurobindo's followers?

It is both his birthday (1872) and India's Independence Day (1947).

When was Peshwa Bajirao I born?

On 18 August 1700.

Who founded Kaivalyadhama?

Swami Kuvalayananda, at Lonavala in 1924.

What did V. N. Bhatkhande do for Hindustani music?

He classified the ragas into ten thaats and published hundreds of compositions in notation.

Sources

Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande".
Sri Aurobindo Ashram, "Sri Aurobindo: Life" (sriaurobindoashram.org).
G. S. Sardesai, New History of the Marathas, volume 2 (Phoenix Publications, 1948).
Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal, "Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar" (abgmvm.org).
Kaivalyadhama, "Swami Kuvalayananda: The Legacy" (kdham.com).

Last reviewed: 12 November 2026.