Instrumental, chiefly sitar, sarod and surbahar · Maihar, Madhya Pradesh
Maihar (Senia-Maihar) gharana
The instrumental lineage gathered around Allauddin Khan at Maihar.
What the name refers to
The Maihar gharana, also called the Maihar-Senia gharana, is the instrumental lineage formed by Ustad Allauddin Khan at the court of Maihar, now in Madhya Pradesh. More than any other school, it carried Hindustani instrumental music to audiences outside India during the twentieth century.
How it grew
Allauddin Khan left home as a boy to learn music in Calcutta, where by his son Ali Akbar Khan's account he spent seven years studying voice with Nulo Gopal, learned violin from Swami Vivekananda's brother, and studied Western instruments with the orchestra leader Lobo Prabhu. He then studied sarod with Ahmed Ali Khan at Rampur, who sent him on to Mohammed Wazir Khan, the Rampur court musician and a descendant of Tansen's Senia line. Family accounts describe years of waiting before Wazir Khan finally accepted him, adopted him as a fourth son, and taught him for decades. Because that Senia training is the root of the school, the lineage is often written as Maihar-Senia.
Allauddin Khan settled at Maihar, where he taught his son Ali Akbar Khan (sarod), his daughter Annapurna Devi (surbahar) and students including Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee (sitar). The gharana's reach is unusually wide across instruments: later musicians associated with it include the sarod players Bahadur Khan, Sharan Rani and Rajeev Taranath, the violinist V. G. Jog, the flautists Pannalal Ghosh and Hariprasad Chaurasia, and the slide guitarists Brij Bhushan Kabra and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.
The widely repeated life story rests largely on family testimony, including Ali Akbar Khan's own account, rather than independent documentation; dates and details vary between tellings.
What it sounds like
The tradition is known for extended, carefully structured alap — the unmetred opening exploration of a raga — followed by jod and jhala, a disciplined treatment of raga grammar, and the adaptation of vocal dhrupad ideas to instruments. Allauddin Khan's own training across voice, violin, sarod and wind instruments left the school open to ensemble playing and to instruments outside the older court repertoire.
Documented teaching lineage
Read from the top: the earliest documented teachers come first, and each later entry follows the teacher it descends from.
Ustad Allauddin KhantaughtUstad Ali Akbar Khan
Father and teacher.
Ali Akbar Khan — WikipediaUstad Allauddin KhantaughtAnnapurna Devi
Father and teacher.
Annapurna Devi — WikipediaUstad Allauddin KhantaughtPandit Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar studied with Allauddin Khan at Maihar.
Ravi Shankar — WikipediaUstad Allauddin KhantaughtPandit Nikhil Banerjee
Nikhil Banerjee studied with Allauddin Khan and later with Ali Akbar Khan.
Nikhil Banerjee — WikipediaAnnapurna DevitaughtPandit Hariprasad Chaurasia
Hariprasad Chaurasia became her student after moving to Bombay.
Hariprasad Chaurasia — Wikipedia
Only relationships with a source are shown. This is not a complete family tree, and a teaching link is never inferred from a shared surname.
Researched lineage
Musicians documented within this tradition by the archive's lineage research. Where someone has a page here, their name links to it; where they do not, the entry stays as text until a sourced profile can be written.
- Wazir Khandied 1926Rudra veena and sitarNo page yet
Also written Wazir Khan of Rampur
Court musician at Rampur and the teacher through whom the Senia inheritance reached Maihar.
No continuous-text source was read for this musician in the research run, only search result listings, so both the teacher checks and the wider biography remain unchecked.
Sources: Maihar Gharana · Maihar gharana
Founder of the gharana and teacher of an extraordinary group of students.
Taught by Wazir Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Allauddin Khan — Wikipedia · Maihar Gharana
Son of Allauddin Khan; brought the sarod to international audiences and founded teaching colleges.
Taught by Allauddin Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Ali Akbar Khan — Wikipedia · Maihar gharana · Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
Daughter of Allauddin Khan; withdrew from public performance and became a revered teacher.
Taught by Allauddin Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Annapurna Devi — Wikipedia · Annapurna Devi
The best known Indian musician of the twentieth century abroad, and a major composer.
Taught by Allauddin Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Ravi Shankar — Wikipedia · Maihar gharana · Maihar Gharana
A sitar player admired for lyrical, unhurried raga development.
Taught by Ali Akbar Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Nikhil Banerjee — Wikipedia · Nikhil Banerjee Interview continued
Made the bamboo flute a solo classical instrument.
Taught by Allauddin Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Pannalal Ghosh — Wikipedia · Maihar Gharana
- Bahadur Khan1931–1989SarodNo page yet
Sarod player and film composer, nephew of Allauddin Khan.
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Bahadur Khan (musician) — Wikipedia · Maihar Gharana · Maihar gharana
One of the first women to perform sarod professionally; also an instrument collector.
Taught by Allauddin Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Sharan Rani Backliwal — Wikipedia · Maihar Gharana
Sarod player of the fourth family generation, active in India and the United States.
Taught by Ali Akbar Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Aashish Khan — Wikipedia · Aashish Khan: Legendary Indian Classical Master Of Sarode
The most widely heard bansuri player of recent decades.
Taught by Bholanath Prasanna, Annapurna Devi
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Hariprasad Chaurasia — Wikipedia · Maihar Gharana · Hari Prasad Chaurasia, an Indian flutist, is associated with ...
Flute player trained in the Maihar manner by Annapurna Devi.
Taught by Annapurna Devi, Devendra Murdeshwar
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Nityanand Haldipur — Wikipedia · Pandit Nityanand Haldipur · Nityanand Haldipur – Ali Akbar Khan Centennial
Disciple of Ravi Shankar; surbahar study with Annapurna Devi.
Student of Damodar Lal Kabra and Ravi Shankar; co-founder of Saptak.
Kolkata player associated with the Maihar tradition.
- Niladri KumarSitar
Trained by his father Kartick Kumar.
- Vidushi Jaya BiswasSitar
Student of Ravi Shankar, 1956–1966.
Sources for this research
Selected listening
A few performances by the gharana's most significant players, one each, to give the ear a sense of the style before reading further.
Start here
Raag Shuddha Basant
Shuddha Basant · AIR Raagam
An archival broadcast recording released by All India Radio's own channel.
Start here
Raga Deepawali — flute
Pt. Pannalal Ghosh - Topic
A label-distributed recording of Deepawali, a raga associated with him.
Raga Shree on sarod
Shree · Ali Akbar Khan - Topic
Start here
Raga Jhinjhoti
Jhinjhoti · Prasar Bharati Archives
From the national broadcaster's own archive.
References
Know this lineage better than we do? Corrections and sourced additions are welcome.
Continue exploring
- Ustad Allauddin KhanA musician documented within the Maihar (Senia-Maihar) gharana.
- Pandit Pannalal GhoshA musician documented within the Maihar (Senia-Maihar) gharana.
- All gharanas & lineagesOther lineages, including those of different disciplines sharing a city's name.
- InstrumentsHear what the musicians of this instrumental, chiefly sitar, sarod and surbahar lineage play.