Pandit Rajan Mishra

Rajan Mishra was born in 1951 in Banaras into a family of musicians whose ancestral home was in Kabir Chaura, the Varanasi neighbourhood that produced many dancers and musicians. He became the ganda-bandh shagird of Gayanacharya Pandit Bade Ramdas Mishra, and learnt from his father, Pandit Hanuman Prasad Mishra, and his uncle, the sarangi player Pandit Gopal Mishra. With his younger brother Sajan he began performing in his teens.

The brothers moved to Delhi in 1977, which Rajan Mishra called his karm bhoomi. Their first concert abroad was in Sri Lanka in 1978, followed by tours of Europe, the USA, the UK, the USSR, Singapore, Qatar and elsewhere; in 2018 their "Bhairav se Bhairavi Tak" series covered 54 concerts in 13 countries. They sang at the major Indian festivals — Sawai Gandharva in Pune, Dover Lane in Kolkata, Saptak in Ahmedabad, Harivallabh in Jalandhar — and are credited with showing that the vocal tradition of Banaras was a khayal tradition, not only a home of thumri, dadra, kajri and chaiti.

A follower of Osho and Satguru Jagjit Singh, he composed many bandishes but never put his own name in them, attributing them to his guru. Honours shared with his brother include the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1998), the Padma Bhushan (2007) and the National Tansen Samman (2011–12).

He died of COVID-19 complications after two heart attacks at St Stephen's Hospital, Delhi, on 25 April 2021.

Unhurried vilambit khayal that explores each note, melody and bhava over virtuosic display; bhajans and Banaras thumri alongside khayal. Almost always heard in duet with Sajan Mishra.