Gharanas & musical lineages

A tabla style that took Delhi's technique and gave it weight and cross-rhythm, played slower and with a fuller bass.

Type

gharana

Where it grew

Ajrara, near Meerut, Uttar Pradesh

Voice or instrument

Tabla

Earliest documented figures

Kallu Khan, Miru Khan

Founded by the cousins Kallu Khan and Miru Khan, students of the Delhi line.

• Kallu Khan18th to 19th centuryTablaNo page yet

  Co-founder of the Ajrara style.

  No teaching relationship was proposed for this musician, so no relationship check was run; biographical research is still outstanding.

  Sources: Ajrara gharana — Wikipedia · Ajrada or Ajrara Tabla Gharana

• Miru Khan18th to 19th centuryTablaNo page yet

  Co-founder of the Ajrara style.

  No teaching relationship was proposed for this musician, so no relationship check was run; biographical research is still outstanding.

  Sources: Ajrara gharana — Wikipedia · Ajrada or Ajrara Tabla Gharana

• Habibuddin Khan1899–1972Tabla

  The Ajrara player through whom most modern teaching in the style runs.

  Now linked to the archive profile for Ustad Habibuddin Khan; accounts of his training differ and are recorded on that profile.

  Sources: Ajrara gharana

• Manju Khan20th centuryTablaNo page yet

  Carried the Ajrara repertoire in the later twentieth century.

  Taught by Habibuddin Khan

  Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.

  Sources: Ajrara gharana — Wikipedia · Ustad Manju Khan and the Ajrada Gharana: An Analytical ...

• Akram Khanborn 1965Tabla

  Seventh-generation Ajrara exponent; performer and teacher of the gharana repertoire today.

  Now linked to the archive profile for Ustad Akram Khan, built from his own site, SwarGanga and a 2024 university workshop report.

  Sources: Akram Khan | Tabla · Ajrara Gharana - Akram Khan