Aban Mistry, a musician and scholar, known as the first woman solo tabla player in India, passed away in Mumbai on Sunday evening. She was 72.

Mistry, one of the few members of the Parsi community to take up Hindustani classical music, was also the co-founder of Swar Sadhna Samiti, a Kalbadevi-based organisation dedicated to the promotion of music through education and cultural programmes.

Office bearers of the Samiti said Mistry died from multiple organ failure. “Mistry was a pioneering woman artiste with a golden personality. She was an authority on the tabla and the pakhawaj, on which she had done a lot of research,” said tabla player Omkar Gulvady, who has played at the Samiti’s annual festivals for the past 25 years.

Mistry wrote three books – Pakhawaj and Tabla: History, Schools and Traditions, Tablé ki bandishein and The Contribution of Parsis to Indian Classical Music.