Sitar and surbahar · Etawah, Uttar Pradesh
Imdadkhani (Etawah) gharana
A sitar lineage named after Imdad Khan, known for a singing, vocal approach to the instrument.
What the name refers to
The Imdadkhani gharana — also called the Etawah gharana after the town the family is associated with — is one of the principal lineages of sitar and surbahar playing, named for Ustad Imdad Khan (1848-1920) and known for a style that imitates the singing voice.
How it grew
The family's musical descent runs back several generations before Imdad Khan. His father, Ustad Sahabdad Khan, was a trained vocalist who took up the sitar; by the account on the family site of Shahid Parvez Khan, Sahabdad was close to Haddu Khan of the Gwalior gharana and learned khayal from him before moving to Etawah, which gave the school its alternative name. Sources differ on who should be called founder: the family site names Sahabdad Khan as founder while crediting Imdad Khan with creating the characteristic instrumental style, and other accounts treat Imdad Khan as the fountainhead.
Imdad Khan trained under his father and became known for extreme practice discipline, including chilla, a ritual period of isolated practice. He served as court musician at Mysore and Indore and played at the Delhi Durbar in 1913; he was also the first sitarist to be recorded, in 1904. Where nineteenth-century instrumental playing was expected to follow dhrupad after the Senia model, Imdad Khan turned instead towards khayal-ang, with its greater ornamentation and improvisation.
The line continued through his sons Enayat Khan (sitar) and Waheed Khan (surbahar), then Vilayat Khan — who further developed the handling of meend and murki and modified the sitar's construction — and Imrat Khan, and into the present generation with Shahid Parvez, Nishat Khan, Irshad Khan and Shujaat Khan.
What it sounds like
The tradition is described as gayaki ang, an approach that imitates the phrasing and ornament of the singing voice, with great attention to bending notes across the frets (meend) and to the small turning ornament called murki. A performance follows the classical sequence of alap, jod and jhala without percussion, as in dhrupad, before the composed gat with tabla, developed through tans and rhythmic play.
Documented teaching lineage
Read from the top: the earliest documented teachers come first, and each later entry follows the teacher it descends from.
Ustad Imdad KhantaughtUstad Enayat Khan
Father and teacher.
Imdadkhani gharana — WikipediaUstad Aziz KhantaughtUstad Shahid Parvez Khan
Father and teacher, in the same family lineage.
Shahid Parvez — WikipediaUstad Enayat KhantaughtUstad Vilayat Khan
Father and first teacher; Vilayat Khan was a child when his father died.
Vilayat Khan — 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.
- Sahabdad Khan19th centurySitar and surbaharNo page yet
The earliest documented musician of the Etawah line.
No teaching relationship was proposed for this musician, so no relationship check was run; biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Etawah gharana — Wikipedia · THE IMDADKHANI GHARANA गृह खनि · Etawah / Imdadkhani Gharana - Pandit Arvind Parikh
Gave the gharana its name and its approach to the surbahar.
Taught by Sahabdad Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Imdad Khan — Wikipedia · Etawah gharana · Etawah Gharana - Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan · THE IMDADKHANI GHARANA गृह खनि
Developed the family style further and recorded extensively.
Taught by Imdad Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Enayat Khan — Wikipedia · Enayet Khan - A World,s Heritage Of Native Music · Etawah Gharana - Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan
Brother of Enayat Khan and a specialist on the surbahar.
Taught by Imdad Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Etawah gharana — Wikipedia · Etawah Gharana - Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan · THE IMDADKHANI GHARANA गृह खनि
Shaped the modern gayaki ang of sitar playing.
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Vilayat Khan — Wikipedia · Etawah / Imdadkhani Gharana - Pandit Arvind Parikh
Kept the surbahar in concert life and taught internationally.
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Imrat Khan — Wikipedia · Ustad Imrat Khan · THE IMDADKHANI GHARANA
Scholar-musician of Bhagalpur and teacher of Budhaditya Mukherjee.
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Bimalendu Mukherjee — Wikipedia · How a geologist built a Hindustani music oasis in a steel ...
Senior disciple of Vilayat Khan and a long-serving music administrator.
Taught by Vilayat Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Arvind Parikh — Wikipedia · My Guru, Pandit Arvind Parikh · Books - Welcome To Pandit Arvind Parikh · Pt. Arvind Parikh
Sixth-generation player of the family and a leading sitarist today.
Taught by Aziz Khan
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Shahid Parvez — Wikipedia · Etawah Gharana - Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan
Known for precision and for combining the gharana's lyricism with fast, exact work.
Taught by Bimalendu Mukherjee
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Budhaditya Mukherjee — Wikipedia · Budhaditya Mukherjee
Son of Vilayat Khan; plays and sings in concert.
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Shujaat Khan — Wikipedia · Explore Shujaat Husain Khan Shows, Tickets and More. ...
Son of Imrat Khan, active in cross-tradition collaborations.
Relationship checking is complete against the source text read for this musician; wider biographical research is still outstanding.
Sources: Nishat Khan — Wikipedia · Ustad Nishat Khan
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.
Sohini (qawwali ang), sitar — recorded Calcutta, 1904
The Gramophone & Typewriter, Ltd.
The first sitar recording made in India, taken by William Sinkler Darby in late 1904 and issued in 1905. Now in the public domain and held at Wikimedia Commons.
Alap in Bageshri, surbahar
Megaphone Records (JNG-25)
A 78 rpm side issued as by "Professor Enayat Khan"; the transfer is hosted on Michael Kinnear's Etawah discography page.
Raga Jaijaiwanti on sitar
Jaijaiwanti · Ustad Vilayat Khan - Topic
Raga Darbari on sitar
Darbari · Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan - Topic
References
- Imdadkhani gharana — Wikipedia
- Legendary Figures: Ustad Imdad Khan and Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan (Darbar)
- Etawah Gharana — Musical Lineage (Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan)
Know this lineage better than we do? Corrections and sourced additions are welcome.
Continue exploring
- Ustad Imdad KhanA musician documented within the Imdadkhani (Etawah) gharana.
- Ustad Enayat KhanA musician documented within the Imdadkhani (Etawah) gharana.
- All gharanas & lineagesOther lineages, including those of different disciplines sharing a city's name.
- InstrumentsHear what the musicians of this sitar and surbahar lineage play.