Allauddin Khan

Indian classical music is blessed with numerous gems. One of the most prominent figures in Indian classical music was Allauddin khan. He was born in 1862 at Shibpur village in Brahmanbaria (located in modern day Bangaldesh) and kept enthralling people with his mesmerizing talent as long as he was alive. He is believed to be one of the greatest musicians Indian people have ever seen. He was primarily a Sarod expert but at the same time, he was equally good at playing other instruments as well. He had a great influence on Maihar gharana of Indian classical music. Allauddin Khan was the court musician of Brijnath Singh, the Maharaja of Maihar Estate in the Central Province.

To his credit, Baba Allauddin Khan gave birth to music stalwarts like Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi. Other great Indian musicians like Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee, Vasant Rai, Indranil Bhattacharya, Pannalal Ghosh, Wazir Khan etc took their training in music from baba Khan only. His introduction to music happened courtesy his brother Fakir Aftabuddin. Later on, he learned fine nuances of music from singer Gopal Krishna Bhattacharya.

His interesting life journey took him to another music legend Amritalal Dutt who further finetuned his skills. He also learnt European classical violin from a Mr Lobo. Later on he fell in love with Sarod and decided to study Sarod. He learnt Sarod from Asghar Ali Khan and later on Wazir Khan Beenkar who was among the last direct descendants of the legendary Tansen.

Soon, Baba Allauddin Khan became the court musician of Brijnath Singh and completely transformed the Maihar gharana of Indian classical music. He also set up the Maihar College of Music during the year 1955. Baba was recipient of several prestigious awards including Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1952, coveted Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India during the years 1958 and 1971 respectively.

Great Names in Instrumental Music

There are numerous musical instruments that are played by greatest of artists. But few artists make themselves immortal on the sheer basis of their talents. Few of the musical instruments are solely attributed to one in a generation artist whereas some instruments got popularity because one single artist took the craft of playing the instrument to an altogether new height. Let’s talk about few such artists.

Whenever you think of Shehnai, the only name that comes to the mind is Bismillah Khan. He has become a synonym for Shehnai. His popularity in India as well as abroad can be gauged from the fact that an Islamic country Iran has named one of its principal concert halls after the name of Shehnai maestro. Similarly, Tabla is associated with Ustaad Zakir Hussain whereas Sarangi is associated almost solely with Ram Narayan. This does not show that there haven’t been any other notable performers with the particular instruments but just the fact that one single artist has commanded utmost respect and love from people all over the world. Zakir Hussain is also associated with fusion music recordings. Notable fact is Tabla is an accompanying instrument yet he has the capability of commanding a performance by himself and that is no mean feat. Another such name that comes to the mind is Shiv Kumar Sharma, who is credited to bring Santoor in the drawing room of every Indian household. This is basically a folk instrument with more than 100 strings yet Pandit Shiv has managed to popularize it and made it a mainstream musical instrument.