Ustad Ustād or ostād (abbreviated as Ust., Ut. or Ud.; from Persian ) is an honorific title used in West Asia, North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is used in various languages such as Persian, , Azerbaijani, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Marat ...

Imdad Khan (1848 – 1920) was a

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...

and

surbahar ''Surbahar'' (; ) sometimes known as bass sitar, is a plucked string instrument used in the Hindustani classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is closely related to the sitar, but has a lower pitch. Depending on the instrument's size, it ...

player. He was the first sitar player ever to be recorded.Profile of Imdad Khan on Veethi.com website
Published 12 February 2014, Retrieved 13 July 2020

Family background

The Imdad Khan family is of Hindu Rajput lineage before the family converted to Islam. Imdad Khan is considered one of the founders of Etawah gharana (Imdadkhani gharana) of

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, si ...

. His two sons

Enayat Khan Ustad Enayat Khan ( ur, عنایت خان ; 1894–1938) also known as Nath Singh was one of India's most influential sitar and surbahar players in the first decades of the 20th century. He was the father of Vilayat Khan, one of the topmost s ...

and Wahid Khan, his grandsons

Vilayat Khan Ustad Vilayat Khan (28 August 1928 – 13 March 2004) was an Indian classical sitar player.Imrat Khan Imrat Khan (17 November 1935 – 22 November 2018) was an Indian sitar and surbahar player and composer. He was the younger brother of sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan.Farrell, Gerry (2001)"Khan, Imrat" '' Grove Music Online''. (subscriptio ...

, and great-grandsons Shahid Parvez, Shujaat Khan,

Nishat Khan Nishat Khan (born 25 October 1960) is an Indian sitar player from an illustrious musical family and the foremost sitar virtuoso of his generation. As a composer and music producer he has collaborated with some of the world's leading musicians su ...

, Irshad Khan, Wajahat Khan, Shafaatullah Khan, Azmat Ali Khan and Hidayat Khan have all upheld his musical tradition, musical luminaries themselves.

Zila Khan Zila Khan is an Indian Sufi singer and actor. She sings classical and semi-classical musical forms and performs in the tradition of Imdadkhani gharana. She has acted in Bajirao Mastani a film by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and also actively acts in ...

the Sufi, classical and semi classical singer is the first female artist from this gharana, she is Vilayat Khan's daughter whom her father formally made a student also. Imdad Khan taught the sitar and surbahar to his two sons, Enayat and Wahid Khan, whom he used to refer to as his two hands. Although both of them played the sitar and the surbahar,

specialized on the sitar and Wahid Khan on the surbahar.

Early life and career

Imdad Khan was born in

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra i ...

, as the fourth generation of what was to become the Imdadkhani

Gharana In Hindustani music (North Indian classical music), a ''gharānā'' is a system of social organisation in the Indian subcontinent, linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship, and more importantly by adherence to a particular mus ...

(school) or

Etawah Etawah also known as Ishtikapuri is a city on the banks of Yamuna River in the state of Western Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Etawah District. Etawah's population of 256,838 (as per 2011 population census) m ...

gharana, named after a village outside Agra where the family soon moved. He was taught by his father, Sahabdad Khan, a trained vocalist and self-taught sitar player, but Imdad came to greatly develop and define the family style and techniques. Imdad Khan was also trained by the legendary beenkar Bande Ali Khan (disciple and son-in-law of Haddu Khan). In the 19th Century, the instrumental classical music of North India was dominated by the ''Senia'' style, passed down through the musical dynasty of Miyan Tansen's descendants, who played in the

dhrupad Dhrupad is a genre in Hindustani classical music from the Indian subcontinent. It is the oldest known style of major vocal styles associated with Hindustani classical music, Haveli Sangeet of Pushtimarg Sampraday and also related to the South In ...

''ang''. Imdad instead evolved a style based on the newer, more popular

khyal Khyal or Khayal (ख़याल / خیال) is a major form of Hindustani classical music in the Indian subcontinent. Its name comes from a Persian/Arabic word meaning "imagination". Khyal is associated with romantic poetry, and allows the perfo ...

singing. It is said that in his youth at

, Imdad practiced on the sitar in a state of chilla (isolation) for some twelve years. When he moved with his family to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, the house in which they lived was named "Riyaz" (practice).

Rajput lineage

The Imdad Khan family is of Hindu Rajput lineage.(Deepak Raja, booklet for

Ulhas Kashalkar Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar (born 14 January 1955) is a Hindustani classical vocalist. He has received training in the Gwalior, Jaipur and Agra gharanas, and is considered one of the finest representative of all three schools. Early life Ulhas was ...

's ''Tribute to Vilayat Khan'' CD (India Archive Music IAMCD 1071, 2003), page 21.) The family is of Hindu origin and later converted to Islam. In an informal continuation of his rajput lineage Ustad

(father of Ustad Vilayat Khan) kept a Hindu name of Nath Singh. Ustad Vilayat Khan himself composed many bandishes using the pen name ''Nath Piya''.

Tribute

Imdad attained great fame in his lifetime: he served as a court musician in

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

and

Indore Indore () is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and is the only city to ...

, and he was the first sitar player ever to be recorded. Some of these recordings have been released on CD, on the ''Great Gharanas: Imdadkhani'' compilation in RPG/

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

's ''Chairman's Choice'' series.

References

Footnotes

"Hamare Sangit Ratna", a treatise on great Ustads of India {{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Imdad 1848 births 1920 deaths Etawah gharana Hindustani instrumentalists People from Etawah Sitar players 20th-century Indian musicians