Hindustani music is taught person to person. Browse the traditions by voice, instrument or place, and open one to read who is documented within it.
The names of these traditions — gharana, bani, teaching line, regional style — describe different things, and each entry says which it is. Where a teaching link is shown, a sentence in a named source supports it. Where it is not, we say so, and the claim stays unpublished.
This is growing research rather than a complete map. Not every instrument organises itself into gharanas, many musicians here do not yet have a page of their own, and dates, founders and teaching links are left out wherever a source has not yet settled them. Additions are read by an editor before they appear. Carnatic traditions are a later phase.
37 traditions
The oldest surviving layer: dhrupad singing, the rudra veena that shadows it, and the pakhawaj that keeps its time. These pass down as banis and family lines rather than as city-named houses.
gharana · Rudra veena, Dhrupad
The rudra veena players of the Rajput courts, whose teaching later fed into Rampur and into several twentieth-century instrumental lines.
Jaipur, Alwar, Rajasthan · 2 musicians documented
bani · Dhrupad vocal, Rudra veena
The best known surviving dhrupad line: long, slow alap in which the raga is built note by note, sung and played on the rudra veena.
Jaipur, Udaipur, Mewar · 11 musicians documented
gharana · Dhrupad vocal
A dhrupad line with a strong Gauharbani and Khandarbani inheritance, known for elaborate alap and forceful composition singing.
Darbhanga, Bihar · 3 musicians documented
gharana · Dhrupad vocal
A smaller dhrupad tradition of north Bihar, carried today by a handful of singers and important for its rare repertoire.
Bettiah, Bihar · 2 musicians documented
teaching lineage · Rudra veena, Sitar, Sursringar
The court lineage at Rampur that taught Allauddin Khan and others, and so stands behind much of modern instrumental music.
Rampur, Uttar Pradesh · 1 musicians documented
gharana · Pakhawaj
Temple pakhawaj playing that became a concert tradition, and one of the main sources of dhrupad accompaniment today.
Nathdwara, Rajasthan · 2 musicians documented
teaching lineage · Pakhawaj
A pakhawaj line remembered for sheer power, and still taught through the Dagar circle and Bundelkhand families.
Bundelkhand, Datia, Madhya Pradesh · 1 musicians documented
Khayal and the lighter classical forms. A gharana here is recognised by how it opens a raga, shapes a taan and treats the words — usually named after the town where its founding family settled.
gharana · Dhrupad and khayal vocal, Instrumental
Bengal's own classical school, dhrupad-rooted and central to the music of nineteenth-century Calcutta.
Bishnupur, West Bengal · 6 musicians documented
gharana · Khayal vocal, Dhrupad and dhamar
A forceful, rhythm-minded khayal style with dhrupad in its bones: firm voice production, bold bol work, and a liking for older compositions.
Agra, Uttar Pradesh · 10 musicians documented
gharana · Khayal vocal
The oldest of the khayal gharanas and the one most others measure themselves against. Its teaching is plain and complete: clear note placement, a steady unfolding of the raga, and bandishes taught in full.
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh · 11 musicians documented
gharana · Khayal vocal
Slow, patient khayal built on long-held notes and exact intonation, with the raga allowed to open gradually rather than being displayed at speed.
Kairana, Uttar Pradesh · 11 musicians documented
gharana · Khayal vocal
Dense, tightly woven khayal: complex and compound ragas, long winding phrases, and rhythm handled without visible effort.
Atrauli, Jaipur, Uttar Pradesh · 9 musicians documented
gharana · Khayal vocal, Thumri and ghazal
Ornate and openly attractive singing: fast taans, a strong thumri and ghazal side, and an ear for the audience.
Patiala, Punjab · 9 musicians documented
gharana · Khayal vocal
Rounded, open-throated khayal that keeps Gwalior's clarity while adding a smoother line and carefully shaped taans.
Rampur, Sahaswan, Uttar Pradesh · 6 musicians documented
gharana · Khayal vocal
A khayal style that leans on the words and on devotional feeling, best known today through the singing of Jasraj.
Mewat, Rajasthan, Haryana · 5 musicians documented
gharana · Khayal vocal
A Mumbai gharana known for breath control, long unbroken phrases and an interest in merging ragas.
Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh · 4 musicians documented
gharana · Khayal vocal
Very slow, inward khayal with sparse ornament, deep meaning given to each note, and a distinctive use of sargam.
Indore, Madhya Pradesh · 4 musicians documented
gharana · Khayal vocal, Thumri and semi-classical
The home of purab-ang thumri: unhurried, text-led singing, close to the city's dance and tabla traditions.
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh · 5 musicians documented
teaching lineage · Thumri and semi-classical
The lighter, faster bandish thumri of Lucknow, shaped by dance and by the court's own compositions.
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh · 3 musicians documented
regional style · Semi-classical vocal
A short, restless form built from quick knotted phrases; difficult to sing well and kept alive by relatively few musicians.
Punjab · 3 musicians documented
Sitar, sarod, bansuri, sarangi, shehnai, santoor, violin and harmonium. Some are full gharanas with their own baaj; others are teaching lines, where the transmission is documented but no house name is claimed.
teaching lineage · Sarangi
The sarangi grew up accompanying singers, and its teaching lines follow those households rather than one founding name. Solo sarangi is a twentieth-century development.
Delhi, Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh · 7 musicians documented
teaching lineage · Bansuri
A young tradition rather than a gharana: the bamboo flute became a full classical instrument within living memory, and its teaching lines are short and clear.
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh · 21 musicians documented
teaching lineage · Shehnai
The shehnai moved from temple gateways and weddings to the concert stage largely through one Varanasi family.
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh · 3 musicians documented
teaching lineage · Santoor
A Kashmiri instrument brought into classical music within the last century, by two families working in parallel.
Kashmir, Jammu · 5 musicians documented
teaching lineage · Violin
A borrowed instrument played in the singing style, taught in several unrelated family lines rather than one school.
Maharashtra, Varanasi, Bengal · 5 musicians documented
teaching lineage · Harmonium
An imported instrument that became indispensable to khayal accompaniment, with teaching lines running through accompanists rather than gharanas.
Maharashtra, Bengal · 3 musicians documented
gharana · Sitar, Sarod, Surbahar, Bansuri, Violin
The twentieth century's most far-reaching instrumental school: dhrupad-like alap, a strict practice regime, and students across several different instruments.
Maihar, Madhya Pradesh · 17 musicians documented
gharana · Sitar, Surbahar
The sitar school that made the instrument sing: gayaki ang, drawn-out meend, and a family line of players over six generations.
Etawah, Uttar Pradesh · 12 musicians documented
gharana · Sarod
The sarod line of the Bangash family, in which the rabab of Afghanistan became an Indian classical instrument over six generations.
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh · 7 musicians documented
gharana · Sarod
A second major sarod line, distinct from the Bangash family, with a strong Bengali branch and a right-hand technique of its own.
Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh · 5 musicians documented
teaching lineage · Sitar, Surbahar
The older, dhrupad-leaning sitar line behind the Masitkhani gat: slow, weighty compositions and a plectrum style kept apart from the dominant twentieth-century schools.
Delhi, Jaipur · 6 musicians documented
Drumming lineages, each with its own bols, hand technique and solo repertoire. A city name here belongs to a tabla line, not to the vocal gharana of the same town.
gharana · Tabla
The oldest tabla gharana and the source of the others: a closed, two-finger technique and a repertoire built for delicate accompaniment.
Delhi · 5 musicians documented
gharana · Tabla
A tabla style that took Delhi's technique and gave it weight and cross-rhythm, played slower and with a fuller bass.
Ajrara, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh · 5 musicians documented
gharana · Tabla
Tabla shaped by kathak: open, forceful strokes, dramatic compositions and a close relationship with dance.
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh · 6 musicians documented
gharana · Tabla
Tabla with a large composed repertoire: long gats, rich bass and a flowing, singing quality.
Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh · 9 musicians documented
gharana · Tabla
The one major tabla gharana founded outside the Muslim hereditary families: open, ringing strokes and a repertoire close to Varanasi's dance and vocal music.
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh · 6 musicians documented
gharana · Tabla
Powerful tabla with pakhawaj in its language, made famous worldwide by Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain.
Punjab · 6 musicians documented