Ghulam Ali

Early life and background

Ali was born in the village of Kaleke in the Sialkot District of Punjab, pre-partition India (now in Pakistan). He belongs to a musical family, his father was a vocalist and a sarangi player who initiated Ghulam Ali to music from his childhood.

Ali’s father named him after Bade Ghulam Ali. At 15, he became a student of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, a master of the Patiala Gharana of Hindustani music. Due to the busy schedule of Bade Ghulam Ali, he was trained mainly by Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s three brothers, Barqat Ali Khan, Mubarak Ali Khan, and Amanat Ali Khan, in Lahore.

All these distinguished classical musicians taught him the finer nuances of classical music. His solid foundation of classical music included studying Thumri and learning to sing raga.

Career

Ali started singing for Radio Lahore in 1960. Along with singing ghazals, Ghulam Ali composes music for his ghazals. His compositions are raga-based and sometimes include a scientific mixture of ragas. He is known for blending gharana-gaayaki into ghazal and this gives his singing the capability to touch hearts. He beautifully sings Punjabi songs too. Most of his Punjabi songs have been extremely popular. Though from Pakistan, Ghulam Ali remains as popular in India as in Pakistan.

He entered Bollywood with a Hindi film song Chupke Chupke Raat Din in B. R. Chopra’s film, Nikaah. Other popular ghazals include Hungama hai kyon barpaa, Awaargi, and Yeh dil yeh paagal Dil mera.

On being questioned about Pakistani pop groups, Ghulam Ali replied, “Frankly, I am really bewildered at their style of singing. How can you sing a song by running and jumping around the stage? The stage is meant for performing not for acrobatics.”

Ali has also sung some beautiful ghazals like Kina kina timro tasveer, Gajalu tee thula thula aankha, Lolaaeka aee thula and Ke chha ra diun in Nepali language with Narayan Gopal, a well known Nepali singer, and composer Deepak Jangam. These songs were compiled in an album entitled Narayan Gopal, Ghulam Ali Ra Ma, and are popular among Nepali music lovers to this day.

One of his memorable concerts was at the Taj Mahal

Notable Ghazals/Songs

• Ae husn-ae lala faam
• Apne Dhun Mai Reheta Hun Mai Bhee Tere Jaisa Hun
• Apni Tasveer Ko Aankhon Se
• Baharon Ka Chaman
• Barsan Lagi Sun Budiya Raja
• Chamakte Chand Ko Tuta Hua Tara Bana Dala
• Chhup Chhupa Ke Piyo
• Chupke Chupke Raat Din
• Dil Buk Buk Ahro
• Dil Jala Ke Mera Muskuraate Hain Woh
• Dil dhadakne ka sabab
• Dil Mein Ek Leher Si Uthi Hai Abhi
• Fasle Aise Bhi Honge
• Heer
• Hum Tere Shahar Mein Aaye Hain
• Hum To Kitno Ko Mehzabeen Kehte Hain
• Humko Kiske Gham Ne Mara
• Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa
• Itni muddat baad mile ho
• Kabhi neki mein mujhe
• Kachhi Deewar Hoon Thokar Na Lagana
• Kaisi Chali Hai Abke Hawa
• Kal Chaudvin Ki Raat Thi
• Kal Raat Bazm mein jo mila
• Kehte Hai Mujhse Ishq Ka Afsana Chahiye
• Khuli Jo Aankh
• Khusboo Gunche Talash Karti Hain
• Khusboo Jaise Log Mile
• Ki Pucchde Ho Haal
• Kiya Hai Pyaar Jise
• koi humnafas nahi hai
• Main Nazar Se Pee Raha Hoon
• Mariz-e-muhabbat unhi ka fasana
• Mehfil Mein Baar Baar
• Mera Kya Tha Tere Hisaab Mein
• Ni Chambe Diye Bandh
• Patta Patta Boota Boota
• Rabba Mere Haal Da
• Tak Patri Waaleya Lekh Mere
• Tumhare Khat Mein Naya Ik Salaam
• Woh Kabhi Mil Jayen To
• Yeh Batein Jhooti Batein Hain
• Yeh Dil Yeh Pagal Dil
• Zakhm-e-Tanhai Mein Khusboo-e-Heena Kiski Thi

Iqbal Bano

Early life

Iqbal Bano was born in Delhi, British India. From a young age, she developed a love for music. It was a crucial moment of her life when her friend’s father told Bano’s father, “My daughters do sing reasonably well, but Iqbal is blessed in singing. She will become a big name if you begin her training.” Her father allowed her to study music. When Bano was a teenager she migrated to Pakistan along with her family.

In Delhi, she studied under Ustad Chaand Khan of the Delhi Gharana, an expert in all kinds of pure classical and light classical forms of vocal music. He instructed her in pure classical music and light classical music within the framework of classical forms of thumri and dadra. She was duly initiated Gaandaabandh shagird of her Ustad.

Career

Ustad Chaand Khan referred her to All India Radio, Delhi, where she sang on the radio.

In 1952, aged 17, she married into a land-owning family in Pakistan. Her husband promised that he would never try to stop her from singing, but would rather encourage and promote her. She was a star by the 1950s, singing soundtrack songs for famous Urdu films like Gumnaam (1954), Qatil (1955), Inteqaam (1955), Sarfarosh (1956), Ishq-e-Laila (1957), and Nagin (1959).

In Pakistan

Her husband died in 70′s, after which she moved to Lahore. It was observed that her temperament was particularly suited to vocal genres like thumri, dadra and ghazal.

Iqbal Bano was invited by Radio Pakistan for performances. Her debut public concert was in 1957, at the Lahore Arts Council. She was considered a specialist in singing the ghazals of Faiz Ahmed Faiz. In 1985, Bano roused a strong crowd of 50,000 people in Lahore by singing Faiz’s passionate Urdu anthem, Hum Dekhenge, although his works were banned by General Zia ul-Haq’s military regime. In due course she generated more and more public appeal and became a specialist in singing the kalam of Faiz Ahmad Faiz. She also sang ghazals of Nasir Kazmi, also ghazals in Persian. She also sang Persian poetry, which became popular in Iran and Afghanistan. In pre-1979 Afghanistan, she was often invited to the annual cultural fair, the Jashn-e-Kabul.

In light classical, her presentation of Thumris in raags Khammach (kahay sataey mohe), Tilak Kamode (sautan ghar na ja), Des (Naheen parey mohe chaen), Peelo (gori torey naina karaj bin kalay) and others are renderings which have become all time great.

Music lovers noted some similarities between Bano and Begum Akhtar, especially some marked resemblances in their styles of singing. Bano’s recitals stuck to a classical style that lays more stress on the raag purity.

Awards

She won the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Pride of Performance) medal in the 90′s for her contributions to the world of Pakistani music

Death

At the age of 74, Iqbal Bano died in Lahore on April 21, 2009, after a short illness.

Farida Khanum

In 2005, she was awarded the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s highest civilian honour by President Pervez Musharraf.

Early life

Born in (1935) in Calcutta and raised in Amritsar. Her sister is Mukhtar Begum.

She started learning Khayal from her sister Mukhtar Begum at age seven and later learnt classical music from Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan. Her sister Mukhtar Begum would take her, a seven-year-old Farida, to Khan’s place for riyaaz. She migrated to Pakistan after partition of India in 1947.

Career

Farida Khanum gave her first public concert in 1950 and then joined Radio Pakistan where she courted fame and fortune.  She became a star when Pakistan’s president Ayub Khan invited her to a public recital in the ’60s.

The ghazal she is most associated with is “Aaj Jaane Ki Zidd Naa Karo”.

Personal life

Farida Khanum lives in Lahore, Pakistan. She has 1 son and 5 daughters. She lives with her second oldest daughter, and her only son, his wife and kids. One of her daughters lives with her husband and kids in New York, One of her daughters lives in Canada. Her youngest daughter is a medical doctor in Pakistan and lives with her husband and kids.

Nayyara Noor

Biography

Nayyara Noor was born in 1950 in Assam. Her family was a merchant class hailing from Amritsar who had settled in Guwahati in Assam State in the North-Eastern India. Her father was an active member of the Muslim League and in 1958, the family moved to Pakistan. As a child, Nayyara is said to have been inspired by the bhajans of Kanan Devi and Kamla as well as the ghazals and thumris of Begum Akhtar.

Although Nayyara had no formal musical background nor formal training, she was discovered by Professor Israr at the Islamia College in Lahore after hearing her sing for her friends and teachers at an annual dinner at the National College of Arts in Lahore in 1968. Soon thereafter she was asked to sing for the university’s Radio Pakistan programs.

In 1971, Nayyara made her public singing debut in Pakistani television serials and then beginning with films like Gharana and Tansen. She has since sung ghazals composed by the likes of Ghalib and Faiz Ahmed Faiz and has performed with Mehdi Hassan. She has won three gold medals in the All Pakistan Music Conference and a Nigar Award for best female singer. She has since performed at countless mehfils and mushairas having cemented a following among ghazal lovers in Pakistan and India.Her probably the most famous ghazal (a form of song in Urdu poetry) was ae jazba e dil gar mai chhon, written by Behzad Lakhnavi 1900-1974, a poet, script writer and song writer of radio Pakistan, for which she won many rewards. Behazad Lakhnavi is buried in Sakhi Hasan. This is the place which allotted by the government for the memories of Behzad Lakhnavi.
Nayyara won the Nigar Award for best singer, in the film ‘Gharana’, in 1973.Nayyara won the Nigar Award for best singer in the film ‘Dooriyaan’, in 1984.The key to Nayyara’s voice is that it is realistic and inspiring at once-an enormous accomplishment, which is seldom seen in modern Pakistani music.Hers is a voice that demands our surrender-to its energy, to its vocal sway, and, above all, to its wistful presentation.Her admirers are stunned by the influence of he voice that has been unleashed on them.

Since early eighteenth century, a significant development in classical gayeki took the form of evolution of gharanas or extended music families, each having its own style or interpretation of raags and their relative emphasis on the tone (sur), level of voice, beat (taal) and improvisations. Nowadays the expression gharanas is applied only to Khayal singers. In Dhrupad Gharana counterparts were called banis. Four banis were identified during the time of its dominance. These were known as Nouhari, Daguri, Goudari and Khandari. Tansen was the founder of Goundari bani. 18 Daguri bani is still in existence with Rahimuddin Dogar, Mueen Naseeruddin and Ameen Naseeruddin, commonly known as Dagar brothers as its great singers in modern times.

Gharanas came into prominence and acquired their own peculiar styles during the disintegration of the Mughal dynasty. A number of local princes, rajahs and sultans seized power and established their own courts patterned on the Mughal model. Leading musicians also dispersed and attached themselves with different courts entertaining their patrons and at the same time coaching their disciples. Interaction between these leading figures in music was limited and, therefore, the same raags were sung by different ustads according to their own interpretations. Gradually these differences became marks of distinction between gharanas. It must, however, be clarified that there are many instances of singers belonging to one gharana learning from Ustads of other gharanas and thus combining and integrating different singing styles, Ustad Ameer Khan and Salamat Ali are its vivid examples.

Tahira Syed

Music career

Syed received her initial training in music from Ustad Akhtar Hussain. She first appeared on air in 1968–69 on Radio Pakistan, and her popularity increased in the 1970s and 1980′s. “Yeh Alam Shauq Ka Dekha na jaey” , “Chanjar Phabdi na” and “Abhi to Main Jawan Houn” are some of her most popular songs. She has been the recipient of various musical awards in recognition of her achievements as a singer. In 1985, she appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine Being the youngest, Tahira was made to learn singing since the tender age of 12. After two years of rigorous classical music training by a teacher, Tahira was then personally taught music by her mother.

Education

She obtained her primary education from the Convent of Jesus and Mary where she passed her Senior Cambridge examinations. She went on to study for and LLB Degree at Lahore College. She graduated with an LLB degree , before enrolling for Masters in English at Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore; she later dropped out of the college.

Personal life

Tahira Syed is the daughter of the Pakistani singer Malika Pukhraj. They are from a Kashmiri family. Tahira was the youngest child in her family, with five siblings (one sister and four brothers). Her sister, Tasneem, is married to famous Pakistani lawyer and senator S.M. Zafar. Syed has two children, a son and a daughter, both of whom are lawyers by profession in New York City. Her marriage to noted attorney Naeem Bukhari ended in 1990.

Ustad Amanat Ali Khan

Early life and background

Amanat Ali Khan was born in Sham Chaurasi, Hoshiarpur, Punjab to Akhtar Husain Khan and the grandson of Ali Baksh Khan, the founder of ‘Patiala Gharana’. Along with Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, the young Amanat Ali started singing for gatherings (‘mehfils’) and at an early age he became a recognised singer in the court of the Patiala king.

Career

Soon after independence he moved to Pakistan. His concerts on Radio Lahore became quite popular and he toured South Asia becoming the representative of Patiala gharana in Pakistan.

His memorable songs include “Aa Mere Pyaar Ki Khushboo”, “Yeh Arzoo Thi”, “Mausam Badla”, “Yeh Na Thi Hamari Qismat”, “Insha Je Utho” and “Kab Aao Ge”

Personal life

Ustad Amanat Ali died at aged 42 years in Lahore in September 1974. His eldest son Ustad Ustad Asad Amanat Ali Khan inherited his father’s beautiful voice and talent. After a very successful music career, Asad Amanat Ali died of heart attack on April 8, 2007, in London.

Since most of the newer singers like Shafqat Amanat Ali and Rustam Fateh Ali have moved away from classical Patiala style singing, this leaves Amanat’s brothers ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan and Ustad Hamid Ali Khan, as the last of the Patiala legends.

Pathanay Khan (real name: Ghulam Muhammad; 1926 – 2000) was a great folk singer from Pakistan. His singing style was mostly Kafi or Ghazal, and were largely based on the Sufi poetry of Khwaja Ghulam Farid and Shah Hussain. He was born in 1926 in the village Basti Tambu Wali, situated in the heart of the Thal Desert, several miles from Kot Addu (Punjab).

Life

Pathanay Khan was very attached to his mother. She took good care of him and tried to educate him. However, he, like his father Khameesa Khan, spent his time wandering, contemplating and singing. His nature lured him away from school after the seventh class/standard. He began singing, mostly the Kafis of Khwaja Ghulam Farid, the saint of Bahawalpur. His first teacher was Baba Mir Khan, who taught him everything he knew. Singing alone did not earn him enough, so the young Pathanay Khan started collecting dry logs for his mother, who used to prepare bread for the villagers. This enabled the family to earn a very modest living. It is said that remembering those days brought tears to his eyes and he believed that it was his love for God, music, and Khawaja Farid that gave him strength to bear the burden. Pathanay Khan adopted singing as a profession in earnest after his mother’s death. His singing had the capacity to bewitch his listeners, and he could sing for hours on.

When he was only a few years old, his father brought his third wife home, so his mother decided to leave his father. She took her son along and went to Kot Addu to stay with her father. When the boy fell seriously ill, his mother took him to a syed’s house. The syed’s wife looked after him and his mother to change his name because it seemed too heavy for him. Her daughter commented that he looked like Pathana (in that region, a name symbolising love and valour), and so from that day onwards he was known as Pathanay Khan. His mother credited the new name for saving the child’s life.

Achievements

He was given the President’s Pride of Performance Award.

Death

Pathanay Khan died after a protracted illness at his native town of Kot Addu on Thursday March 9, 2000. His funeral was largely attended by people including poets, intellectuals, lawyers, educationalists and district officials. He was laid to rest at his native graveyard in Kot Addu.

I had heard of Doctors without Borders and Reporters without Borders, but when I saw a headline in a Pakistani newspaper about Mystics without Borders, it was a first for me and certainly caught my attention.

It turns out a fascinating festival by the name of the “International Mystic Music Sufi Festival” is currently being celebrated in Karachi at the Bara Dari. The festival is being organized by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop, which is also the group that has been responsible for the popular World Performing Arts and Theatre Festival held annually in Lahore.

This Sufi festival is the first of its kind in Karachi and certainly an encouraging sign that people are able to express and share their sentiments, devotion, spirituality and passion in diverse ways. This festival is expected to last until May 7, and with an entrance fee of just Rs 300, it promises a lot of entertainment and education to Karachiites. According to the organizers, performers from over 70 countries have been invited to present their specialties in muslim sufi rituals, including music, songs and dances. There are performers from as far away as Syria which can be a delight to watch.

ATP has written before (here, here, here, here, here and here) on some of the great mystic poets and we wish to join the participants in this festival in spirit.

According to the media report:

Usman Peerzada of the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop said that the group’s main aim had been to bring festivals to Pakistan since 1992 and now, as a result of their efforts, the World Performing Arts Festival had become the largest festival of Asia. “Festivals are living festivals and we aim to make the Sufi festival into just that. So please, own the festival,� he said in his address to the audience.

Daily Times spoke to Faizan Peerzada, the master-mind behind the show, to ask him what his audience could expect out of this festival. “A lot of variety. Some of these performers, like the Syrian performers can alone perform for four hours, but we have condensed it into a performance of 32 minutes so that we can manage 17 performances in one day. We have tried to bring together as many performers here as was possible and each one of them is performing a different Islamic tradition, so there’s a collection of so many aspects, which makes this festival unique.�

and the performances so far seem to have kept up to their high expectations:

The curtain raiser began with a performance by Zain-ul-Abideen Shah also known as Jumman Shah and his troupe of five people who sang a qafi by Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. Their performance was followed by a mind-blowing performance by Mithoo and Goonga Saeein, who presented an instrumental using dhols while three of their members whirled around, representing the ecstasy so indispensable to the Sufi tradition. The next performance was by an Iranian four-member group called ‘Bidaat’, after which Kathak dancer Sheema Kirmani stole the show with her brilliant performance on Ameer Khusro’s ‘aaj rang hai’. With her group of two male dancers and two female, she brought the words to life and used the vacuum of the stage as a canvas portraying a beautiful painting that she successfully displayed to an audience that erupted in a round of applause for her.

We hope this Sufi Festival will become a local tradition, and sthat uch art, folk, mystic, music, poetic, dance, and religious festivals will be held regularly in a city that still hosts one of the most diverse and culturally steeped citizenry.

Around the 12th century, Hindustani classical music diverged from the principle which eventually came to be identified as Carnatic classical music. The central notions in both these systems is that of a melodic mode or raga, sung to a rhythmic cycle or tala. The tradition dates back to the ancient Samaveda, (lit. sāma=ritual chant), which deals with the norms for chanting of srutis or hymns such as the Rig Veda. These principles were refined in the Natyashastra by Bharata (2nd-3d c. CE) and the Dattilam (probably 3d-4th c. AD)[2]. In medieval times, many of the melodic systems were fused with ideas from Persian music, particularly through the influence of sufi composers like Amir Khusro, and later in the Moghul courts. Noted composers such as Tansen flourished, along with religious groups like the Vaishnavites. After the 16th century, the singing styles diversified into different gharanas patronized in different princely courts. Around 1900, Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande consolidated the musical structures of Hindustani Classical music into a number of thaats. In the 20th century, Hindustani classical music has become popular across the world through the influence of artistes like Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and many others.

Indian classical music has 7 basic notes (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni), with five interspersed half-notes, resulting in a 12-note scale. Unlike the 12-note scale in Western music, the base frequency of the scale is not fixed, and intertonal gaps (temper) may also vary; however with the gradual replacement of the sarangi by the harmonium, an equal tempered scale is increasingly used. The performance is set to a melodic pattern (raga or raag) characterized in part by specific ascent (Arohana) and descent (Avarohana) sequences, which may not be identical. Other characteristics include King (Vadi) and Queen (Samavadi) notes and a unique note phrase (Pakad). In addition each raga has its natural register (Ambit) and glissando (Meend) rules, as well as features specific to different styles and compositions within the raga structure. Performances are usually marked by considerable improvisation within these norms.

History

Music was first formalized in India in connection with preserving the sruti texts, primarily the four vedas, which are seen as apaurasheya (lit. un-created by man). Not only was the text important, but also the manner in which they had been enunciated by the immortals. Prosody and chanting were thus of great importance, and were enshrined in the two vedangas (bodies of knowledge) called Shiksha (pronunciation, chants) and Chhandas (prosody); these remained a key part of the brahminic educational system till modern times. The formal aspects of the chant are delineated in the Samaveda, with certain aspects, e.g. the relation of chanting to meditation, elaborated in the Chandogya Upanishad (ca. 8th c. BC). Priests involved in these ritual chants were called Samans and a number of ancient musical instruments such as conch (shankh), lute (veena), flute (bansuri), trumptets and horns were associated with this and latter practices of ritual singing.

Sanskritic Tradition

The Samaveda outlined the ritual chants for singing the verses of the Rig veda, particularly for offerings of Soma. proposed a tonal structure consisting of seven notes, which were named, in descending order, as Krusht, Pratham, Dwitiya, Tritiya, Chaturth, Mandra and Atiswār. These refer to the notes of a flute, which was the only fixed frequency instrument. This is why the second note is called pratham (lit. first, i.e. note when only first hole is closed).

Music is dealt with extensively in the Valmiki Ramayana; Narada is an accomplished musician, as is Ravana; Saraswati with her veena is the goddess of music. gandharvas are presented as spirits who are musical masters, and the gandharva style looks to music primarily for pleasure, accompanied by the soma rasa. In the Vishnudharmottara Purana, the Naga king Ashvatara asks to know the svaras from Saraswati.

The most important text on music in the ancient canon is Bharata’s Natya Shastra, composed around the 3rd c. CE. The Natya Shastra deals with the different modes of music, dance, and drama, and also the emotional responses (rasa) they are expected to evoke. The scale is described in terms of 22 micro-tones, which can be combined in clusters of 4, 3, or two to form an octave.

While the term raga is articulated in the Natya Shastra (where its meaning is more literal, colour, as in the mood), it finds a clearer expression in what is called jati in the Dattilam, a text composed shortly after or around the same time as Natya Shastra. The Dattilam is focused on gandharva music, and discusses scales (swara), defining a tonal framework called grama in terms of 22 micro-tonal intervals (sruti[3]) comprising one ocave. It also discusses various arrangements of the notes (murchhana), the permutations and combinations of note-sequences (tanas), and alankara or elaboration. Dattilam categorizes melodic structure into 18 groups called jati, which are the fundamental melodic structures similar to the raga. The names of the jatis reflect regional origins, e.g. andhri, oudichya.

Music also finds mention in a number of texts from the Gupta period; Kalidasa mentions several kinds of veena (Parivadini, Vipanchi), as well as percussion instruments (Mridang), the flute (Vamshi) and conch (Shankha). Music also finds mention in Buddhist and Jaina texts from the earliest periods of the Christian era.

Narada’s Sangita Makarandha treatise circa 1100 CE is the earliest text where rules similar to the current Hindustani classical music can be found. Narada actually names and classifies the system in its earlier form before the advent of changes as a result of Persian influences. Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda from the 12th century was perhaps the earliest musical composition presently known sung in the classical tradition called Ashtapadi music.

In the 13th century, Sharngadeva composed the Sangita Ratnakara, which has names such as the turushka todi (Turkish todi), revealing an influx of ideas from the Islamic influx. This text is the last to be mentioned by both the Carnatic and the Hindustani traditions, and is often thought to date the divergence between the two.

Medieval Period: Persian influence
The advent of Islamic rule under the Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughal Empire over northern India caused considerable cultural interchange. Increasingly, musicians received patronage in the courts of the new rulers, who in their turn, started taking increasing interest in local music forms. The initial generations may have been rooted in a cultural traditions outside India, gradually, they adopted many aspects from their kingdoms which retained the traditional Hindu culture. This helped spur the fusion of Hindu and Muslim ideas to bring forth new forms of musical synthesis like qawwali and khayal.

The most influential musician from the Delhi Sultanate period was Amir Khusrau (1253-1325), sometimes called the father of Hindustani classical music[4]. A prolific composer in Persian, Turkish, Arabic, as well as Braj Bhasha, he is credited with systematizing many aspects of Hindustani music, and also introducing the ragas Zeelaf and Sarparda. He created the genre of the qawwali, which fuses Persian melody and beat on a dhrupad like structure. A number of instruments (such as the sitar) were also introduced in his time.

Amir Khusrau is sometimes credited with the origins of the khayal form, but the record of his compositions do not appear to support this. It is possible that the word khayal was a corruption of qawwali, but it is more likely that it has a separate etymolgy (the Arabic word khyal means mood or capriciousness). The compositions by the court musician Niyamat Khan (Sadarang) in the court of Muhammad Shah ‘Rangiley’ bear a closer affinity to the modern khyal, and suggests that ‘Sadarang’ may have been the father of modern day ‘Khayal’.

Much of the musical forms innovated by these pioneers merged with the Hindu tradition, composed in the popular language of the people (as opposed to Sanskrit) in the work of composers like Kabir or Nanak. This can be seen as part of a larger Bhakti tradition, (strongly related to the Vaishnavite movement) which remained influential across several centuries; notable figures include Jayadeva (11th century), Vidyapati (1375 AD), Chandidas (14th-15th century), and Meerabai (1555-1603 AD).

As the Mughal Empire came into closer contact with Hindus, especially under Jalal ud-Din Akbar, music and dance also flourished. Particularly, the legendary musician Tansen is recognized as having introduced a number of innovations, ragas as well as particular compositions. Legend has it that upon his rendition of a night-time raga in the morning, the entire city fell under a hush and clouds gathered in the sky, or that he could light fires by singing raga Deepak, which is supposed to be composed of notes in high octaves.

At the royal house of Gwalior, Raja Mansingh Tomar (1486-1516 AD) also participated in the shift from Sanskrit to the local idiom (Hindi) as the language for classical songs. He himself penned several volumes of compositions on religious and secular themes, and was also responsible for the major compilation, the Mankutuhal (book of curiosity), which outlined the major forms of music prevalent at the time. In particular, the musical form known as dhrupad saw considerable development in his court and remained a strong point of the Gwalior gharana for many centuries.

After the dissolution of the Mughal empire, the patronage of music continued in smaller princely kingdoms like Lucknow, Patiala, Banaras, giving rise to the diversity of styles that is today known as gharanas. Many musician families obtained large grants of land which made them self sufficient, at least for a few generations (e.g. the Sham Chaurasia gharana). Meanwhile the Bhakti and Sufi traditions continued to develop, and interact with the different gharanas and groups.

Modern era
In the 20th century, the power of the maharajahs and nawabs declined, and so did their patronage. With the expulsion of Wajid Ali Shah to Calcutta after 1857, the Lucknavi musical tradition came to influence the music of renaissance Bengal, giving rise to the tradition of Ragpradhan gan around the turn of the century.

In the early 20th century, Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar emerged as an extremely talented musician and organizer (despite having been blinded at age 12). His books on music, as well as the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya music school that he opened in Lahore in 1901 helped foster a movement away from the closed gharana system.

Paluskar’s contemporary (and occasional rival) ‘Chaturpandit’ Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande recognized the many rifts that had appeared in the structure of Indian classical music. He undertook extensive research visits to a large number of gharanas, Hindustani as well as Carnatic, collecting and comparing compositions. Between 1909 and 1932, he brought out the monumental Hindustani Sangeetha Padhathi (4 vols)[5], which suggested a transcription for Indian music and described the many traditions in this notation. Finally, it consolidated the many musical forms of Hindustani Classical music into a number of thaats, a system that had been proposed in the Carnatic tradition in the 17th century. The Ragas as we know them today were consolidated in this landmark work.

In modern times, the government-run All India Radio and Radio Pakistan helped to bring the artists in front of the public, countering the loss of the patronage system. The first star was Gauhar Jan, whose career was born out of Fred Gaisberg’s first recordings of Indian music in 1902. With the advance of films and other public media, musicians started to make their living through public performances. With exposure to Western music, some of these melodies also started merging with classical forms, especially in the stream of popular music. A number of gurukuls, such as that of Alauddin Khan at Maihar, flourished. In more modern times, corporate support has also been forthcoming (e.g. the ITC Sangeet Research Academy).

Principles of Hindustani music

The rhythmic organization is based on rhythmic patterns called tala. The melodic foundations are “melodic modes” called thaats, thats are part of “musical personalities” called ragas. Thaat and Raga are often mixed and confused. See the early 20th century musicological research of Bhatkhande for further details.

Thaats – and so Ragas – may consist of up to seven scale degrees, or swara. Hindustani musicians name these pitches using a system called sargam, the equivalent of Western movable do solfege: