Nasiruddin Khan Dagar

Nasiruddin Khan was the eldest son of Allabande Khan, and was already a celebrated musician in his own right during the lifetimes of Zakiruddin and Allabande Khan. He learnt from his uncle Zakiruddin Khan, from his father Allabande Khan, and from Inayat Khan, a grandson of Behram Khan.

He appeared at all the major music conferences of the 1920s and 1930s. His performance at the second session of the All-Bengal Conference in Calcutta in December 1935 was probably his last at a major conference; a review appeared in the Amrita Bazar Patrika of 9 January 1936. He died in Indore on 18 June 1936, following a brief illness attributed to diabetes, in his early forties and at the height of his fame — a loss that disrupted the training of the following generation and shaped the later development of dhrupad. He was called the last of the giants.

No recordings of him are known to survive.

He had a soft, melodious voice and was renowned for serene and imaginative alap, and above all as a master of shruti, the subtle microtonal shades that establish the flavour of a raga. He was reported to demonstrate the different shades of the same note in different ragas. Well versed in Sanskrit and the shastras, he would begin a performance with a Sanskrit shloka and quote old texts to illustrate points of music. Through the practice of nada yoga he developed a voice said to blend with the tanpura and to resemble several veenas sounding together.