Gharanas & musical lineages

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.

Type

teaching lineage

Where it grew

Delhi and Jaipur; later Varanasi, Lucknow and Delhi

Voice or instrument

Sitar, Surbahar

Earliest documented figures

Masit Khan (Masit Sen)

Traced to Masit Khan (Masit Sen) of Delhi, credited with the slow gat form that carries his name. Senia musicians leaving the Delhi court in the eighteenth century settled at Jaipur, which is why press writing about this line often calls it Jaipur-Senia. It is a teaching line and a compositional style, not the same thing as the Senia-Maihar or Rampur Senia traditions held separately in this archive.

• Masit Khaneighteenth century, DelhiSitarNo page yet

  Also written Masit Sen, Masid Khan

  Credited with the Masitkhani gat, the slow composition form still played on sitar and other plucked instruments.

  Dates and court details differ between sources; only the attribution of the gat form is treated as settled here.

  Sources: A Short History of Masidkhani Gat and Baaj — Lokogandhar

• Barkatullah Khannineteenth to early twentieth centurySitarNo page yet

  Sitar player described as a descendant of Masit Sen of Delhi; teacher of Ashiq Ali Khan.

  Described in secondary sources as a descendant of Masit Sen; the intervening generations were not verified from an original source.

  Sources: Mushtaq Ali Khan — Wikipedia (training and lineage)

• Ashiq Ali Khanlate nineteenth to twentieth centurySitarNo page yet

  Learned sitar from Barkatullah Khan and taught his son Mushtaq Ali Khan.

  Taught by Barkatullah Khan

  Sources: Mushtaq Ali Khan — Wikipedia (training and lineage)

• Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan1911–1989Sitar, surbahar

  Also written Mushtaq Ali Khan

  Kept the older, dhrupad-leaning sitar style of this line in performance and teaching; his name became closely associated with the Senia sitar style.

  Taught by Ashiq Ali Khan

  Sources: Mushtaq Ali Khan — Wikipedia

• Pandit Debu Chaudhuri1935–2021Sitar

  Also written Devabrata Chaudhuri, Debu Chaudhuri

  Sitar player, professor and author who studied under Mushtaq Ali Khan and carried this Senia sitar line into university teaching in Delhi.

  Taught by Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan

  Sources: Debu Chaudhuri — Wikipedia · Pandit Debu Chaudhuri obituary — The Wire

• Pandit Prateek Chaudhuri1971–2020Sitar

  Also written Prateek Chaudhuri

  Sitar player trained by his father Debu Chaudhuri; the line's later generation.

  Taught by Pandit Debu Chaudhuri

  Sources: A link to the Senia tradition is broken — The Hindu