Ustad Amir Hussain Khan

Amir Hussain Khan was born in October 1899 in Bankhanda, a village in Meerut district. His father, Ahmed Baksh Khan, was a sarangi player who had been brought from Meerut to the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, and he began teaching his son music at six.

The boy preferred the tabla, and his maternal uncle Munir Khan — one of the great tabla masters of his day — took over his training, first during visits to Hyderabad and later in Bombay, where Amir Hussain went to live with him. Munir Khan taught him everything he knew, including the art of composing for tabla, and Amir Hussain stayed with him until his uncle's death in 1937.

He became a celebrated performer, known for building from a slow, steady beat to an overwhelming climax. His disciple Arvind Mulgaonkar recalls that as a guest of the Maharaja of Raigarh he once played for four hours without repeating a composition. He was left-handed and played the bayan with his right hand.

From about the mid-1940s he lived in Bombay, where he founded the Munir Khan Tabla Vadan Kalalaya in Girgaum, named after his guru. His students included Nikhil Ghosh, Arvind Mulgaonkar, Pandharinath Nageshkar, Ghulam Rasul Khan, Sharif Ahmed and his son Fakir Hussain. He died on 5 January 1969. His compositions — kaidas, relas and gats — remain among the most widely taught in the Farrukhabad tradition.

A prolific composer whose kaidas, relas and gats form a large part of the Farrukhabad repertoire. Left-handed, he played the bayan with his right hand.