Ustad Rahimat Khan

Rahimat Khan was born in Gwalior, probably around 1852, one of the three sons of Haddu Khan, who with his elder brother Hassu Khan had made the family famous as khayal singers at the Gwalior court. He began singing with his father as a boy. Accounts of his life are, as the discographer Michael Kinnear notes, sketchy and largely anecdotal.

After Haddu Khan's death Rahimat Khan wandered across north India, at times singing in the streets, before settling in Benares. There, in the early 1890s, he met Vishnupant Chhatre, a former horse trainer who had himself learnt from Haddu Khan and now ran Chhatre's Circus. Chhatre took him on as the company's musician, and with his support Rahimat Khan sang at many princely courts. Around 1900 he was among the musicians invited to a music conference at Kathmandu.

By the turn of the century he had settled at Kurundwad, near Miraj, under the patronage of its Patwardhan rulers. After Chhatre's death he largely withdrew from performing, though he would still sing when invited, including at concerts in Bombay. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, who had grown up in Kurundwad, often presented him at recitals organised by his Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. Abdul Karim Khan, living nearby at Miraj, heard him often and was deeply influenced; the two sang at the festival at Narsobawadi.

In 1919 he was persuaded to record eleven sides for the Gramophone Company in Bombay, with Bal Gandharva and Master Krishnarao on tanpura. They were issued in June 1921 on His Master's Voice as by "Rahimat Khan-Haddu Khan". He died at Kurundwad in 1922 and is buried there.

Remembered for a sweet, gentle and melodious voice that moved with ease across three octaves without losing its open "aa" (akar), and for the force with which he began each alap or taan. The title "Bhoo Gandharva" — a celestial singer on earth — came from the sweetness of his delivery.