Ust Amir Khan-Inspiration for Generations

Music of the Soul Nikhil Banerjee (Abtracted from the souvenir publication of the "music conference to raise funds for a mausoleum on the grave of Amir Khan", Organized by Amir Khan Sangeet Sangstha Rabindra Sadan February 16, 1975, 5 PM)

The cultural history of our motherland is perhaps the most wonderful story of a long and sublime integration. The civilisation which we call ours had to face the currents issuing from different foreign sources as a sequel to the numberless invasions that had heen carried out through the ages. But none of the forces could annihilate the inherent vitality of our culture which assimilated them, enriched its own treasure and enlarged its own dimension. The entire pulse of that life or vitality could be felt in the solid spiritual backbone that was sturdy enough to maintain its entity. Our civilisation is embedded in spiritualism. This tradition derived all its strength and beauty fundamentally from music. Iiterature etc. of its own soil. This to my mind sets the proper perspective against which India's ciassical music should be studied and practised. To that extent it has an image of its own. Our music is never a matter of festive gaiety.

This tradition of our music was carried out with all its serenity by the great devotees like Swami Baijunath, Swami Haridas, Swami Tyagraja, Mirabai, Surdas, and others. As lone wanderers of life, they were absorbed in their sadhana. They accepted music as a medium of self-realisation. But things began to change after the Muslim invasion during the 12th century. Musicians came to be admired and given a high place of honour in the court of the nawab-Badshah of the day. Musicians reacted to their circumstances positively. The spiritual goal came to be overlooked and gradually the purpose of entertainment prevailed over it. Here we trace a distinct fail from the standard both in form and content of music. Instead of that sombre comtemplation of the divine spirit, the musicians catered to the taste of the court perhaps for the patronage which was offered to them. From then on musician imbibed the tendency of showmanship mingled with an attraction for pomp and splendour of their association sometimes imperceptibly. All this background is elaborated only to assign to Ustad Amir Khan the correct place that he should be given in the history of our music. In him I found a rebirth of that Saint-Musician who with his philosophy of music was lost through decades.

Perhaps it was in the year 1949 when I attended a conference organised by Raichand Boral primarily as a listener of Pandit Ravi Shankar. As Panditji had finished his recital I was going to leave the auditorimm when suddenly came to my ear the raga Abhogi from out of a voice in its 'full throated ease' The magic of the voice did have a hypnotic spell on me and instantly drew me back to my chair. That a kheyal performance could be so enthralling was quite a revelation for me especially considering my state of mind at a younger age. Henceforth I found in me a devotee of the great Ustad. In my later life I came in touch with him through my cousin Srimati Purabi Mukherjee who was under his guidance. In many concerts we took part together (as different items of course) as artistes. He has been a constant inspiration im my musical career. In going to develop my own musical ideas I have very often felt that Khan Saheb has thrown a new light on the concept of music and his demonstration has opened up a new horizon with its immense possiblities.

The first thing which strikes me about Amir Khan's performance is his brilliant exposition of the raga image with a strict adherence to the rasa or the mood that is implied in it. This is generally achieved through the medium of alap followed by dhrupad singers. Instrtumental concerts invariably start with the alap and jod before passing on to the main composition viz. gat. Among the present kheyal singers Amir Khan most succesfully assimilated this alappaddhati in his vilambit khayal bistar portion. Quite scrupulously he confines his sthaykhanda in both the saptaks-mandra and madhya. He was very much of an artiste in trying to maintain the predominance of rage-image throughout the performance Therefore he did not indulge in juggling th acrobatics of tal, and layakari which he believed could easily be achieved at the expense of aesthetics. He was an Ustad and no mistake but his valiant craftsmanship wa mellowed by the grace and cadence of his artistry and filtered through the purest channel of his philosophy.

At this point it may be relevant to examine what attitude he maintained towards the choice of lyrics. It has been a general belief that in a kheyal Iyric can get only a secondary im- portance. But unfortunately many famous musicians and composers had pushed this idea to an extreme with the result that they tried to fit in most irresponsibly a handful of poor Iyrics in some of the most serious ragas Sometimes they are crude and vulgar. Amir Khan condemned and hated such blashphemy. His sthayi compositions speak for themselves and are a pointer to thc principle that verse and melody must correspond to each other to reach any significance. His compositions were so inevitable that they cannot be performed satisfactorily in any mode other than his own.

The next technical thing on which Khan Saheh had best of his practice and mastery is known as merukhand or backbone. Up till now very few musicians have realised or emphasised its importance. Amir Khan focussed heavily on it. He had successfully practised all the 5,040 patterns that are possible by the combinations ol seven notes enabling him to have full conlrnl over the rag blooming forth with an inexhaustible variety of vistar and tan.

And lasl but not least, he gave a new dimension to the tarana style ol singing which was first innovated by Amir Khusrau. Khusrau added many Persian poetry not understandable to many. This gave the people an impression that Tarana is a composition of meningless words, syllables and bols of the instrument such as odani/tudani/nadirdani/tom, meaning: He knows You know/You are the ultimate wisdom/l am yours/. Amir Khan deciphered the meaning ot these words and proved their appropriateness. He used to add a few lines from Persian poetry while he performed tarana. He read a paper in the conference on the music of East and West held in 1964 at New Delhi "The poetry is", he writes "always representative of the mystic school of poets. According to the mystic symbolism the beloved is the almighty and the devotee his lover. thus the poetry of the tarana, while maintaining a romantic flavour is strictly spiritual in substance. Music is representative of the aspiration of the people and the music of a people whose values are spiritual must be used as a means to communicate with the divine spirit and not merely to please the masses. Here is an examnle of one of his famous compositions in the raga Darbari Kanada:

Yare man bia bia
Dar tam tadim
Tanan tanatadin
Tanan tana dim tom ta na na na

Antara:

Ba balam raseeda jaanum
Tu bia ke zinda maanum Pas azari ki man na
naanum Bacheh kar khahi amud.

which means: 'Oh love, come soon, come at once/ come and enter my body/ For I arn yours, come

.Antara: My life hangs on my lips/Come thou that I may live again/For if thou shall come when I am no more/ To what avail shall it be".

Another feature of the tarana is the repetition of certain words at a great speed. But Amir Khan did not encourage an exhibition of speed for its own sake. He thought that a person is given to repeat a word again and again in the state of a trance originating either from devotion or pathos or any other heightened emotional state.

Thus Ustad Amir Khan was a great thinker and a composer who was capable of translating his ideas into practice. At every stage of his life he was attempting a bold experiment and striving for perfection. He had a total command over the intrinsic purity of the classical formula of music but that never made him a conservative. He was fully aware of his ulterior purpose and his responsibilities to that extent as an artiste. He had the originality to defy the worn out conventional canons of the kheyal gayaki and to maintain a constructive approach towards the aesthetic beauty of a pcrformance. A few days before he died I met him in a rather homely concert where in course of his demonstration he said to me "Sangit ruh se nikalti aur ruh koi sunati hai" which means:

"Music is wrung out of your heart which alone it is given to enchant".

Even to this day I often feel haunted by those words. Music is the spontaneous outflow of the purest feelings of the soul and it must come as "leaves to a tree". Khan Saheb was never mad after public appreciation or recognition. Music with him was a spiritual pursuit - something which by awakening in our mind "the image of beauty and harmony keeps the suggestion of an eternal truth". ite sought to concentrate within himself and conceive the raga image as the mother conceives the child (excuse me for the simile) and attained the profound meaning of the raga. It is this philosophy of music which places him in the spiritual tradition to which history stands witness.

Ustad Amir Khan

The death of Ustad Amir Khan in a tragic motor accident in Calcutta a few years ago has created a void in the world of Hindustani classical music. At the present time, when there is a dearth of such gifted artists, his death is an irreparable loss. Had he lived longer he would have had, at least, a number of able and talented disciples to carry on the tradition of his gharana.

In the last 25 years some artists have, by their revolutionary spirit, progressive outlook and creative faculties brought about radical changes in the style of presentation of classcal music. Ustad Amir Khan was such an artist. Like Kumar Gandharva. Amir Khan disregarded the age-old, conventional traditions, and with his intelligence and talent evolved an entirely original style of presentation. He also succeeded in gaining the approval and recognition of critics and connoisseurs.

Amir Khan was born at Indore in 1912. Music was in his blood; his ancestors had been musicians in the Mughal courts. His father was an expert sarangi and veena player. A mehfil of Amir Khan's was always a pleasant experience. He had a very impressive and magnetic personality. At his concerts he would always sit in the posture of a yogi doing his tapasya, with closed eyes and deep meditation. He maintained the same position till the end of his concert. His smiling countenance, a total lack of gesticulation or facial distortion, his absolute concentration on the song, and the slow, gradual build-up of a raga picture in- variably kept his audience completely engrossed. He had, for accompaniment, two tanpuras tuned to perfection, a subdued harmonium and a tabla with a straight, simple but steady laya. An atmosphere of solemnity and tranquillity pervaded his con- certs, in striking contrast with the noisy and sometimes un- musical gymnastic bouts some singers have with the tabla players that entertain listeners with acrobatics rather than providing them with aesthetic delight.

He had cultivated his voice till it was as exquisitely chiselled as a piece of sculpture. While presenting a raga he unfolded it with extreme skill, delicacy and purity. At times, when an ascending note appeared to be suspended in mid-air, he un- expectedly made a lightning play on that note, holding the audience spellbound. Because of his inborn, instinctive know- ledge of avakash, kal and laya he was able to make his voice sound as if he was singing swaras from two different octaves simultaneously, treating his audience to a unique celestial ex- perience. His mastery over layakari and the swaras was com- plete. His taans though complicated, and full of artistic twists. vere executed in an easy and graceful way. He had an amazingly wide range of pitch, and he moved majestically through this span with his liquid golden voice. Listeners were always favour- ably impressed by his gayaki and skilled display of tonal beauty. He did not agree with the popular notion that the tarana was just a tongue-twisting exercise with a meaningless cluster of words, involving a lot of voeal jugglery in an ever-increasing tempo. He always put into a tarana a Persian couplet inter- woven in the apparently meaningless 'Dir tun, tan, din yalali, yalallum', and honestly believed that these syllables did have some mysterious and mystic import. According to him it was the Persian scholar Amir Khusro who invented the tarana. Amir Khan was very keen on establishing this theory by carrying out research to unravel the hidden meanings of the tarana. But cruel destiny snatched him away and his mission was left un- accomplished.

Amir Khan's presentation was always thoughtful and methodi- cal and he rarely indulged in repetitive phrases. The thorough treatment he gave each raga naturally required coniderable time for flawless elaboration. It was well-nigh impossible to get a satisfactory exposition from him in just 3 minutes. It was therefore only in the late 1960s that I could have him to record for a long-playing disc. It was not an easy job to bring him before the mike, though obtaining his consent was not all that difficult. Even to approach him posed a very big problem for me. Amir Khan lived, in those days, in very disreputable sur- roundings, where it was considered very objectionab]e for any gentleman to go, even during the day. This is the locality a little beyond and opposite the Congress House on Vallabhhhai Patel Road, near the Kennedy bridge. It is inhabited by professional singing and dancing girls, as well as prostitutes. Amir Khan was giving tuitions to some of these singing girls for his living and therefore had to stay in one of the buildings on the third floor. Later, when his financial position improved, he shifted to a flat on Peddar Road. Just beyond the building where Amir Khan lived was the residence of an elderly singer by the name of Gangabai. Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan and Ahmad Jan Tirakhwa often stayed with her. This shows that even women of these professions were treated with respect as artists, in artistic cirles. As the recording executive of H.M.V. I had to contact artists regardless of time and place.

To obtain Amir Khan's agreement for the recording I had to meet him, and ,therefore it was incumbent on me to visit his residence. I was greatly put off when I learnt about the locality where he stayed. I was afraid of what people would say if they observed me entering a house of ill repute. Any outsider would naturally draw his own conclusions, not knowing that an eminent singer was living in that building. If I had, out of fear of social stigma, refrained from going to visit Amir Khan, his great artistry would have gone unrecorded. The idea of securing his consent for recording together with a keen sense of duty prompted me to enter the building, eyes downcast, not looking about me till I entered Amir Khan's room on thc 3rd floor. Once in his room I cheered up, and I talked to him for an hour or two. After that I visited him often. We exchanged views on music and gharanas, and such visits gave me opportunities to study his likes and dislikes. These visits also gave him confidence in me. After a couple of months and 4 or 5 such visits, he agreed to come for a recording. Some more time was lost in persuad- ing him to agree to the terms of payment. Finally this hurdle too was crossed. Yet Amir Khan went on cancelling dates, giving fresh ones and then again postponing the recording on some flimsy ground. I got fed up with his dilly-daUying and, in spite of my great regard and respect for him, I justifiably felt very annoyed. Ultimately one day I plucked up my courage and said to him, 'If I had approached God Almighty as many times as I have come to you, he would have blessed me, but all I can get from you is the promise of a future date.'

Seeing my exasperation he became thoughtful, smiled a little and replied, 'Please do not disbelieve me. Name any day of this week and I will keep the appointment.'

True to his word he came on the day I named, and I got from him his first long-playing disc. His favourite ragas were Marwa, Darbari Kanada and Malkauns. It is indeed rare these days to hear Raga Marwa as it was presented by Bade Gulam Ali and Amir Khan. His first LP was received with tremendous enthu- siasm by the public. This delighted Amir Khan, and he was more than ready for another recording. In spite of this I had to put in a lot of effort and time to bring him to the studio again. This time he made an LP containing ragas Lalit and Megh and this was all that could be obtained from him before he was lost to the world.

It was my ardent desire to record as many eminent artists as was possible and to get out of each as much as I could to preserve their art for posterity. Bade Gulam Ali, Alla Diya Khan, Amir Khan, Kesarbai Kerkar, rajaballi, Amanat Ali, all these and others of that generation had extremely old fashioned, conservative outlooks and were peculiarly obstinate when it came to recording their talents. This attitude prevented me from fully achieving my goal, and a wealth of art vanished along with these great singers.

I felt very distressed at Amir Khan's sudden death. I still have feelings of great disappointment and frustration when I think of the number of opportunities I lost.

by G.N. Joshi Posted on RMIC by Rajan Parrikar as part of Great Masters Series

Got this from a personal web page of one Jayasrinivasa Rao


Hello friends


This, my personal web-page, is a tribute to Ustad Amir Khan, one of the most important Hindustani Classical vocalists and a singer I greatly admire. I first heard his voice during a very non-musical exercise, when I was putting together different voices of classical vocalists for a quiz programme. It was a time when Hindustani Classical music was something very alien and distant for me. Coming from South India, more specifically rooted in Karnataka, the only link with Hindustani classical music was Pt Bhimsen Joshi's renderings of Dasara Padagalu in Kannada. Of course, I had heard about Pt Mallikarjun Mansur, Pt Kumar Gandharva, Pandita Gangubai Hangal, Pt Basavaraj Rajguru, and felt proud that these eminent singers (including Pt Bhimsen Joshi) were from Karnataka. During this voice collection exercise, way back in 1989, I happened to listen to an album (one of the few studio recordings of Ustadji, I learnt later) of his rendering of four ragas, which Prof. T V Hegde, one of the English teachers in our college in Shimoga, graciously lent me. I neither had the time nor the inclination nor the patience to try and understand what the whole thing was about, but somehow the voice and the style stayed with me, not that it haunted me or anything of that sort. Two years of stay in Pune was supposed to have made me imbibe the finer points of Hindustani Classical music, but nothing of that happened. It was in 1994 that I happened to come across the same album by Ustad Amir Khan. I recognized the album by its cover, which somehow managed to remain the same. I was pondering whether to buy it or not, when a friend of mine, very thoughtfully gifted me the album. This time I was really hooked and there was no looking back.



Megh and Lalit mesmerized me, but Malkauns was irresistible. Being a student of literature meant that most of the things went to the head via the eyes, and it was mostly by reading. I tried very hard to listen to understand this music. I found out that I did not have the requisite and prescribed patience to sit for a minimum of half an hour (which is the usual duration of a raga on one side of an audio cassette) with total concentration. Without someone telling me 'what to listen' to and 'how to listen', it was an uphill task. Out of sheer habit, I resorted to reading about this music, and there was ample written material on it. All that 'pentatonics' and 'komals' and 'dhaivats' confused me even more. I put a stop to all this and decided to just listen for enjoyment without trying to bother about the intricacies, and anyway I didn't want to become a technical expert. I simply became a listener and I enjoy listening to Hindustani classical. Sometimes, though, I envy people who are able to identify ragas instantly. Over these past few years I have unconsciously been trying to make connections between Hindi film songs and the ragas that I have heard.



Coming back to Ustad Amir Khan, most of the things that I know about his music are through reading. I have tried to read whatever I have been able to lay my hands on, and of course, the sleeve notes. While listening to Ustadji, I used to feel that his rendering of Vilambit is in extra slow motion. I realized that Ustadji borrowed this style from Ustad Waheed Khan of the Kirana Gharana, who used this style of singing for his riyaz. Ustad Amir Khan brought this style of rendering onto the performing stage. This style of singing is called the Meerkhand or the Khandameeru style. When I read the sleeve notes carefully I saw that most of the Vilambit renderings were in Jhumra Taal (14 beat ryhtymic cycle), which I learnt, because of its ati-vilambit (extra-slow) tempo, suited his singing in the Meerkhand style. But, sometimes the Drut is so fast (especially Malkauns) that you wonder if it is the same person who is singing it. I learnt that the exuberance of his swift taans and electric sargams were influences from Ustad Rajab Ali Khan of Devas and Ustad Aman Ali Khan of Bhendi Bazaar Gharana respectively. This much I learnt from reading about Ustad Amir Khan's rendering.



Ustadji was born in 1912 and had his initial training from his father, Ustad Shamir Khan, a Sarangi player employed in the court of the Maharaja of Indore. Prof Ajit Singh Paintal, a disciple of the Ustad, says that Ustadji did not formally train under an Ustad of any Gharana, and therefore did not wish to identify himself with any Gharana. As mentioned above, he was influenced by Ustads of many Gharanas. Ustadji designated his style as the Indore Gharana, after the name of the city in which he had his initial training and acquired his musical consciousness.



In an article in the Indian Express (October 24, 1993) written by Ashish Sharma, we get to know the views of a number of Ustadji's disciples regarding his music. Did you know that Pandit Gokulatsavji Maharaj modelled his singing on Ustadji's style by only listening to his recordings and never having met him even once? Even Panditji's voice is so similar to that of Ustadji's that AIR had received angry letters from listeners in Pakistan indicating that in a programme featuring Ustad Amir Khan someone else's name was wrongly announced. It was Pandit Gokulatsavji Maharaj who was singing that day! Panditji says: "It is my misfortune that I could never meet Khan Sahib, but I listened to his recordings over and over again, and tried to emulate the spirit behind his music" (Ashish Sharma, "A Legend and Its Legacy", Indian Express, October 24, 1993). Ashish Sharma says that Panditji has a mind-boggling collection of Khan Sahib's recordings, which include even thumris, ghazals and qawwalis besides khayals, which add up to around 3500-4000 hours, with rare ragas like Sarparda, Zurtaba, Kalingra, Lachchasakh, Chayanat, Khem Kalyan! And imagine one man enjoying it all, when we mere mortals have hardly twenty hours of Ustadji's singing in commercially released recordings!



Khan Sahib never sang thumris during public performances. Pandit Mahendra Sharma, who accompanied Ustadji whenever he came to Delhi, says that Ustadji did not sing thumris in public even though he was an expert exponent of that genre because he considered Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan as a better singer of thumri. And people actually speak of rivalry between these two stalwarts! Some of the articles that I read mentioned that Ustadji closed his eyes to the public while singing and used to be so immersed in his singing that he forgot the listeners. When I listened to the tapes, many a times I found Ustadji actually explaining and elaborating either the words or the ragas. This actually shows that the listener was important for him and he wanted his listeners to know what he was singing. Years after he left us (he died in a car accident on February 13th, 1974), we can even now listen to him speaking to his audience. Pandit Amarnath, a long standing associate of Ustadji, says: "At least 60 percent of today's musicians have been inspired by Khan Sahib." Pandit Surinder Singh, of the Singh Bandhu duo, and one of Ustadji's disciples, says in a similar vein: "We are living in the age of Ustad Amir Khan. While only three or four records of his came out when he was alive, 14 have appeared since his death."



This is all I have to say about Ustadji. I have compiled a detailed discography of the available cassettes of Ustadji's renderings (at least of what I have been able to collect). I have also scoured the world wide web to bring you Ustadji's renderings available on the internet, and also some essays and articles on Ustadji as well as on Hindustani Classical music. These articles on Hindustani Classical Music also reflect the way I want to look at Hindustani Music and music itself in general—devoid of hierarchies and itself being subject to many pulls and pressures and influences.



(I completed the final editing of this webpage on February 13, 2002. I suddenly realized that February 13th is Ustadji's death anniversary. I kept delaying the completion of this webpage for various reasons, and it was purely coincidental that it got completed on this particular day.)



REFERENCES:



Ajit Singh Paintal, Sleeve Notes to Pratidhwani (Music Today, 2001)

Ashish Sharma, "A Legend and its Legacy", Indian Express (October 24, 1993)

Deepak Bannerjee, Biographical Notes to Ananya (Navras Records, 1998)

G N Joshi's article on Ustad Amir Khan at www.chembur.com/anecdotes/amirkhan.htm

"Ustad Amir Khan: The Great Genius of Hindustani Classical Music" (author unknown) at www.ercwilcom.net/indowindow/delhimagazine/

Sumit Savur, Sleeve Notes to Taskeen (Ninaad, 1996)

Susheela Misra, "Ustad Amir Khan" in Great Masters of Hindustani Music (New Delhi: Hem Publishers, 1981; 168-173)

Vamanrao H. Deshpande, "Indore and Amir Khan" in Indian Musical Traditions (Bombay, Popular Prakashan, 1987 [first edn. 1973]; 63-66)



[My name is S Jayasrinivasa Rao. I would like to know your reactions, comments, corrections, advice regarding and for this web-page and more information about Ustad Amir Khan. Kindly write to me: jaysrinivas@yahoo.com]

USTAD AMIR KHAN: a Vignette


By Buddhadev Dasgupta

Being no man of letters my initial impulse when seeking a title for this humble and inadequate tribute to the departed maestro was to choose "The late Ustad Ameer Khan:a thumbnail sketch". But it flashed on me almost immediately that when speaking of immortals one does not use the word 'late', because they continue to live amongst us ever afterwards. One does not refer to late Ludwing Van Beethoven, late Mian Tansen or late Johann Sebastian Bach: and a "thumbnail sketch" would have sounded trite if not frivolous. Hence the word 'vignette', which, under cover of the Oxford Dictionary, could venture to mean "a slight word sketch", as it bound to be incomplete and with a background somewhat blurred.

Around 1948-49, when I was a teenager ...

(There seems to be a whole page missing from the original 'souvenir', but what can be inferred is that the author is sharing with us his experience of a raga he was not familiar with. AC)

... great raga. The venue was the ancestral home of Sri Jnan Prakash Ghosh at 25, Dixon Lane, where Ustad Amir Khan gave a midnight demonstration. From the opening notes the raga sounded like Malkauns to my immature and scant-educated musical perception. But how could it be Malkauns? Within a few moments this illusion was dispelled by the appearance of the two notes which are universally accepted as total taboo so far as Malkauns was concerned: pancham, and shortly thereafter suddh rishav.

I shall never forget the impact of these two notes. The impression created then on my young mind might appear rather melodramatic at this age, to a hardened adult, but its genuineness was unquestionable.

Whenever pancham appeared, after a series of other notes, I felt as if I had been looking intently at a dress studded with various gems, but had missing one brilliant diamond, the most dazzling of all, which was most of the time kept hidden from view and only rarely uncovered by a shifting hand of the absent minded wearer of the dress (who was unimportant). Whenever uncovered, this diamond outshone all the other jewels into insignificance. The raga, I later learnt, was Kausi Kanada. Whenever we reached suddh rishav, it was as if after a day of heart-breaking toil, strain and worries, my weary head last found a pillow to rest upon.

Years went by. I heard the Ustad on many more occasions. At that time he used to dwell for about two hours on whichever raga he took up. Being unaccustomed to his unique style,I thought that he was repetitive and prolix.It took me many more years of mental labour to reach the threshold of the understanding that whenever the Ustad was elaborating a note (playfully caressing would be a better expression) he was trying to extract its utmost musical potential by approaching, modulating and embroidering it in a hundred different ways. My delighted amazement knew no bounds, and I understood why I had earlier,in my crass ignorance, considered him to be long winded and somewhat boring. I think quite a few listeners and devotees of classical Indian music may have gone through the same experience before they could really reach the magnificent and endless repertoire of this musician of musicians.

Many admirers have dwelt fondly on his nobility of bearing and impeccable manners. He was undoubtedly one of those whom Nature had stamped with her unmistakable crown of born-nobility. We do not find his name in the handbooks of noble ancestry, but his mere presence, bearing and demeanour

convinced everyone that he was indeed an "Amir", a nobleman. I was fortunate enough to come in personal contact with him on a few occasions, and I can assert without fear of contradiction that the Ustad's entire waking life (perhaps his dream life too) was attuned to the music of the spheres, and that he was hearing, composing and editing soundless music even when talking banalities or performing other social chores.

For all other musicians, whatever their standard, gharana, caste or creed, Khan Shaheb had a warm and sympathetic heart, and the invariable comment "Achchha hi gata hai" (sings quite well). This was not mere polite form: but it was born of the realization that the path which a sincere student of music has to cover is heart-breaking and endless, and so all efforts to pursue it deserve praise, whatever the extent of progress.

As a humble student of instrumental music, I am tempted to refer to the intense fascination which the Ustad held for instrumentalists. There is no doubt that in our world of classical music, instrumentalists (pioneered by the great veenkars) have always held a conspicuous place of honour; not merely because of their intrinsic worth, but also because their having evolved through painstaking efforts many special types of improvisation peculiar to strings alone which a voice could not produce. This territory, which we might label as tantrakari, was tending to become the sole cruising zone for our instrumentalists, till some of them remembered their old area of origin, the human voice, and "ventured thither wards" again. To these instrumentalists Amir Khan will always be a source of endless inspiration.

The Ustad firmly believed in, and sought to approach with his music, an Unknown Presence. His music inevitably suggested that this Unknown Presence hears it distinctly when a new born human being utters his first feeble cry; that this Presence keeps vigil over the man's entire life, and it is towards this Presence that a man's soul strives till his death. And music is the product of this eternal longing for that Supreme Reality, until the final reunion. It appears that the Ustad used to perceive, during moments of his own supreme creative efforts, a sort of transient union with this Unknown Presence which was the object of his eternal quest.

Between that overwhelming night at 25 Dixon Lane and today there is a gap of 26 years. I have heard many more renderings of the raga Kausi Kanada, quite a few of them by the Ustad himself, but it seemed be never sang that particular Asthai, with the breathtaking appearance of pancham, again. My longing for that song has grown and grown, side by side with the conviction that he must have absentmindedly left it somewhere behind him, which was confirmed by my subsequent queries to his other admirers and disciples. Meanwhile, time and age have had their inevitable effects. The fond and once vivid recollection of that wonderful song has now receded and lapsed into a nebulous state: but still, from amidst the haze of obscured memory and eroded details, that glittering sparkling pancham shines through with untarnished brilliance.

In my desperate yearning, I had decided that one of these days I would request the Ustad to remember and sing this long lost wonder song. But unfortunately I delayed the whole thing somehow, little suspecting how soon and how mercilessly I was going to be checkmated by Providence!

(Edited by Andrew Campana)

Bobda, any articles on the Ustad from you?

Originally posted by: punjini

Bobda, any articles on the Ustad from you?

punjini ji, Yes Will do.

Hindustani Music

Hindustani classical music grew in a social milieu which was both feudal and folk-popular. Patronised by the courts and durbars of various princely states and kingdoms, it found a way of mixing the syncretic forms of popular spirituality with the sensual and earthly yearnings of everyday life. It was this interweaving of shringar and bhakti, the secular and the devotional, pain and pleasure, meditation and celebration that made it a vibrant cultural tradition with which people wholeheartedly identified despite limeted access to it. Thousands of families of musicians, invariably of low-caste and low-class origin, developed, sustained, defined and redefined and preserved this tradition through generations, by creating gharanas and paramparas. Music, like popular religion, has also been a great source of solace amidst distress and injustice, and often an expression of rebellion. This has given it a certain kind of moral stability among the cultural forms.

From the time of the great renaissance man and statesman-poet-musician Amir Khusro (13th century) to the era of Ustad Amir Khan Hindustani classical music has traversed a long and diverse terrain. The old form of Dhrupad gave way to Khayal in 18th century when two rebel musicians of the court of Muhammad Shah Rangila broke with the esoteric tradition to develop an entirely new form which immediately gained popularity. Enthusiastically supported by the patrons the vibrant new form started a process of innovation and openness towards folk music which soon brought into existence the light classical forms like Thumri, Dadra, Tappa, Hori, Chaiti. These were the times of great political upheavals and disintegartion, and, as if confirming the age-old wisdom, the unprecedented flowering of Hindustani music. It was on the ruins of old empires, darbars and havelis that the good times of Hindustani music began.

The emerging middle classes in India during the colonial period developed a taste for the musical heritage and started supporting it. The era of large audiences and popular concerts began. The rise of nationalist consciousness also gave a new fillip to the Hindustani music as it was seen as a great expression of indigenous genius and cultural assertion.

After the end of colonial rule in south Asia in late 1940s, the Hindustani music got support from the radio broadcasting, discerning patrons, governments and institutions. The age of great masters is past. There are no golden voices like those of Kesarbai Kerkar, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Faiyaz Khan, DV Paluskar, Begum Akhtar, Rasoolan Bai, Siddheshwari Devi, Mallikarjun Mansoor and Sharafat Hussain. Musicians like Bhimsen Joshi, Gangubai Hangal and Kishori Amonkar still remind us of the values of that era. It is now the eclectic generation of people like Rashid Khan, Mashkoor Ali Khan, Ajoy Chakraborty, Ulhas Kashalkar and Veena Sahasrabuddhe that will determine the role of tradition amidst change. The rise of interest among the youth of the subcontinent from the 1970s in classical tradition has kept the spirit of dynamism alive in Hindustani music.


Audio samples from the masters of Hindustani music

The Yogi

The death of Ustad Amir Khan in a tragic motor accident in Calcutta a few years ago has created a void in the world of Hindustani classical music. At the present time, when there is a dearth of such gifted artists, his death is an irreparable loss. Had he lived longer he would have had, at least, a number of able and talented disciples to carry on the tradition of his gharana. In the last 25 years some artists have, by their revolutionary spirit, progressive outlook and creative faculties brought about radical changes in the style of presentation of classical music. Ustad Amir Khan was such an artist. Like Kumar Gandharva. Amir Khan disregarded the age-old, conventional traditions, and with his intelligence and talent evolved an entirely original style of presentation. He also succeeded in gaining the approval and recognition of critics and connoisseurs. Amir Khan was born at Indore in 1912. Music was in his blood; his ancestors had been musicians in the Mughal courts. His father was an expert sarangi and veena player. A mehfil of Amir Khan's was always a pleasant experience. He had a very impressive and magnetic personality. At his concerts he would always sit in the posture of a yogi doing his tapasya, with closed eyes and deep meditation. He maintained the same position till the end of his concert. His smiling countenance, a total lack of gesticulation or facial distortion, his absolute concentration on the song, and the slow, gradual build-up of a raga picture invariably kept his audience completely engrossed. He had, for accompaniment, two tanpuras tuned to perfection, a subdued harmonium and a tabla with a straight, simple but steady laya. An atmosphere of solemnity and tranquillity pervaded his concerts, in striking contrast with the noisy and sometimes unmusical gymnastic bouts some singers have with the tabla players that entertain listeners with acrobatics rather than providing them with aesthetic delight. He had cultivated his voice till it was as exquisitely chiselled as a piece of sculpture. While presenting a raga he unfolded it with extreme skill, delicacy and purity. At times, when an ascending note appeared to be suspended in mid-air, he unexpectedly made a lightning play on that note, holding the audience spellbound. Because of his inborn, instinctive knowledge of avakash, kal and laya he was able to make his voice sound as if he was singing swaras from two different octaves simultaneously, treating his audience to a unique celestial experience. His mastery over layakari and the swaras was complete. His taans though complicated, and full of artistic twists. vere executed in an easy and graceful way. He had an amazingly wide range of pitch, and he moved majestically through this span with his liquid golden voice. Listeners were always favour- ably impressed by his gayaki and skilled display of tonal beauty. He did not agree with the popular notion that the tarana was just a tongue twisting exercise with a meaningless cluster of words, involving a lot of voeal jugglery in an ever-increasing tempo. He always put into a tarana a Persian couplet inter- woven in the apparently meaningless 'Dir tun, tan, din yalali, yalallum', and honestly believed that these syllables did have some mysterious and mystic import. According to him it was the Persian scholar Amir Khusro who invented the tarana. Amir Khan was very keen on establishing this theory by carrying out research to unravel the hidden meanings of the tarana. But cruel destiny snatched him away and his mission was left un- accomplished. Amir Khan's presentation was always thoughtful and methodical and he rarely indulged in repetitive phrases. The thorough treatment he gave each raga naturally required considerable time for flawless elaboration. It was well-nigh impossible to get a satisfactory exposition from him in just 3 minutes. It was therefore only in the late 1960s that I could have him to record for a long-playing disc. It was not an easy job to bring him before the mike, though obtaining his consent was not all that difficult. Even to approach him posed a very big problem for me. Amir Khan lived, in those days, in very disreputable surroundings, where it was considered very objectionab]e for any gentleman to go, even during the day. This is the locality a little beyond and opposite the Congress House on Vallabhhhai Patel Road, near the Kennedy bridge. It is inhabited by professional singing and dancing girls, as well as prostitutes. Amir Khan was giving tuitions to some of these singing girls for his living and therefore had to stay in one of the buildings on the third floor. Later, when his financial position improved, he shifted to a flat on Peddar Road. Just beyond the building where Amir Khan lived was the residence of an elderly singer by the name of Gangabai. Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan and Ahmad Jan Tirakhwa often stayed with her. This shows that even women of these professions were treated with respect as artists, in artistic cirles. As the recording executive of H.M.V. I had to contact artists regardless of time and place. To obtain Amir Khan's agreement for the recording I had to meet him, and, therefore it was incumbent on me to visit his residence. I was greatly put off when I learnt about the locality where he stayed. I was afraid of what people would say if they observed me entering a house of ill repute. Any outsider would naturally draw his own conclusions, not knowing that an eminent singer was living in that building. If I had, out of fear of social stigma, refrained from going to visit Amir Khan, his great artistry would have gone unrecorded. The idea of securing his consent for recording together with a keen sense of duty prompted me to enter the building, eyes downcast, not looking about me till I entered Amir Khan's room on the 3rd floor. Once in his room I cheered up, and I talked to him for an hour or two. After that I visited him often. We exchanged views on music and gharanas, and such visits gave me opportunities to study his likes and dislikes. These visits also gave him confidence in me. After a couple of months and 4 or 5 such visits, he agreed to come for a recording. Some more time was lost in persuading him to agree to the terms of payment. Finally this hurdle too was crossed. Yet Amir Khan went on cancelling dates, giving fresh ones and then again postponing the recording on some flimsy ground. I got fed up with his dilly-dallying and, in spite of my great regard and respect for him, I justifiably felt very annoyed. Ultimately one day I plucked up my courage and said to him, 'If I had approached God Almighty as many times as I have come to you, he would have blessed me, but all I can get from you is the promise of a future date.' Seeing my exasperation he became thoughtful, smiled a little and replied, 'Please do not disbelieve me. Name any day of this week and I will keep the appointment.' True to his word he came on the day I named, and I got from him his first long-playing disc. His favourite ragas were Marwa, Darbari Kanada and Malkauns. It is indeed rare these days to hear Raga Marwa as it was presented by Bade Gulam Ali and Amir Khan. His first LP was received with tremendous enthu- siasm by the public. This delighted Amir Khan, and he was more than ready for another recording. In spite of this I had to put in a lot of effort and time to bring him to the studio again. This time he made an LP containing ragas Lalit and Megh and this was all that could be obtained from him before he was lost to the world. It was my ardent desire to record as many eminent artists as was possible and to get out of each as much as I could to preserve their art for posterity. Bade Gulam Ali, Alla Diya Khan, Amir Khan, Kesarbai Kerkar, Rajaballi, Amanat Ali, all these and others of that generation had extremely old fashioned, conservative outlooks and were peculiarly obstinate when it came to recording their talents. This attitude prevented me from fully achieving my goal, and a wealth of art vanished along with these great singers. I felt very distressed at Amir Khan's sudden death. I still have feelings of great disappointment and frustration when I think of the number of opportunities I lost.

The Stalwart

Fourteenth February 1974 was an ill-fated day for Hindustani music because it lost two great stalwarts on the same day. Pt. Srikrishna Narayan Ratanjankar succumbed to protracted illness. Ustad Amir Khan in the height of his form and fame, was tragical- ly killed in a car accident. Although in his early sixties the Ustad was still a force to reckon with in North Indian music, and had it not been for that grievous accident, he might have easily gone on dominating the music world for another decade or so. The world of Indian music went into mourning on l3th February 1974, and there were public condolence-meetings in numerous cities. Programmes of tributes to the two departed maestros were broad- cast from all the important Stations of All India Radio. Born in April 1912 in Kalanaur, Amir Khan began his musical training as a Sarangi-disciple of his own father Ustad Shahmir Khan, a noted Sarangi player who had learnt his art from Chajju Khan and Nazir Khan of the Bhindibazar gharana. Amir Khan's early grooming in Sarangi was only the foundation of his musical edi- fice. He had a vision and imagination of his own for higher artistic flights. Being a reputed artiste and a warm friendly person, Shahmir Khan's hospitable home was a veritable rendezvous of many great contemporary maestros like Ustads Allabande Khan, Jafruddin, Nasiruddin Khan, Beenkar Wahid Khan, Rajab Ali Khan, Hafeez Khan, Sarangi- nawaz Bundu Khan, Beenkar Murad Khan and several others. Thus, although Amir Khans's early musical train- ing commenced with Sarangi, the impressionable and intelligent youngster was constantly exposed to the various vocal gharanas of the times. Gradually, Shahmir Khan himself began to devote more time to Amir Khan's vocal training in which merukhand (or Khand- meru) practice and sargam-singing were specially emphasised. Moulded by the styles of three great giants of his younger days, namely, Ustads Bahre Wahid Khan , Rajab Ali Khan and Aman Ali Khan, Amir Khan evolved his own stylistic school which came to be known as "the Indore Gharana." In fact, Amir Khan was a self-taught musician. He assimilated the distinctive features of the gayakis that appealed to his aesthet- ic sense and were in perfect accord with his voice. The style that he evolved was a unique fusion of intellect and emotion, of technique and temperament, of talent and imagination. His style was a synthesis of three different styles. He assimilated the colour and spirit of Wahid Khan's style, (with its chastity of swara intonation and a richly soporific effect of melodic ela- boration) so well that Ustad Wahid Khan blessed him. "Long shall my music live in you after I am gone". The slow Khayal is ren- dered in such a slow tempo that it has "the langour of unfinished sleep." This style originated in the Merukhand style of the Bhindibazar-gharana. This generally strove to produce the permu- tations and combinations of a given set of notes. These are like mathematical exercises with little artistic effect in a concert. The development of the Vilambit Khayal was marked by deep sereni- ty. The concept of an extra slow tempo with a slow and meticulous unfolding of the raga and the "cheez" was taken from Ustad Bahere Wahid Khan. His taans were clearly influenced by the eloquent ones of Ustad Rajab Ali Khan. In sargam-singing, he revealed his admiration for Ustad Aman Ali Khan. During his early sojourn in Bombay, Amir Khan had be come a close friend of Late Aman Ali Khan. Amir Khan always maintained that had Aman Ali Khan lived longer he would have been the former's "confrere in the world of music". This newly amalgamated "Indore" style of Ustad Amir Khan captivated and influenced a whole gen- eration of younger musicians of all categories through the con- templative and reposeful beauty of his slow, leisurely Badhat (elaboration) enlivened by the "exuberance of his proliferating sargams" and rushing taans. So tremendous has been the impact of his distinctive "gayaki" on the rising generation of young Hin- dustani vocalists that Amir Khan commanded a large following among the younger aspirants. He no longer remained as an isolated individual. For years, he remained one of the most sought after classical vocalists of his times. What set him apart from his contemporary artistes was the fact that he never made any conces- sions to popular tastes, but always stuck to his pure, almost puritanical, highbrow style. "His music combined the massive dig- nity of Dhruvpad with the ornate vividness of Khayal". There are some musicians of the Kirana school who argue that the words of the Khayals are of no importance ! But Amir Khan held different views. He used to say: "The poetic element in Khayal is as vital as its melodic element. An artiste has to have a poet's imagina- tion to be a good musician". Amir Khan has proved that "chaste refined music does not lack listener-response", for, he strictly remained uncontaminated by the present craze for showiness. The tall, handsome Ustad had a dignified concert presence. His digni- ty of bearing and his posture of Yogic calm on the stage struck a perfect accord with the serene grandeur of his music. It was as though his musical thought was in tune with some ideal of beauty and he was striving to communicate it to his charmed audience". As Prof Sushil Kumar Saxena wrote (in the Sangeet Natak Akademy Journal 31) "An Amir Khan swara was at once a tuning of the self, a calm that spreads while Ghulam Ali's glows with a pulpy luminosity." Amir Khan's forte was the exaggeratedly slow or ati vilambit Khayal which he developed in a most leisurely mood with deep serenity and contemplativeness. While his ardent admirers found this part of his concert absolutely engrossing, there were others who found it "excruciatingly slow" or even "insipid"! He always avoided Sarangi accompaniment, and wanted nothing more than a steady, plain Theka from his Tabla accompanist. His favourite slow talas were Jhoomra and Tilwada. Words were subservient to the "absolute music" that he sang, and naturally, "bol-alaps" and "Bol taans" were conspicuously absent in his singing. In the course of his prolonged unfoldment of the vilambit Khayal asthayi, Amir Khan would sometimes render flashing "meteoric taans". His "taans" were marked by many graces like elegant gamaks, lahak and clear "daanas" (clarity of each note). It was natural that the Ustad always chose highly serious, expansive, traditional ragas like Todi, Bhairav, Lalit, Marwa, Puriya, Mal- kauns, Kedara, Darbari, Multani, Poorvi, Abhogi, Chandrakauns and so on. Even the lighter ragas like Hamsadhwani acquired a serious expansive mood when rendered by Amir Khan. His rich, mellow voice was at its best in the deep, dignified "mandra" notes (lower notes). His voice had some inherent limitations, but he shrewdly evolved a style to suit his voice. Summing up the essence of his father's vocal style, Ekram Ahmad Khan (the eldest son of the Ustad) wrote : "Amongst the elder maestros of music, Khan Saheb was intensely devoted to Rajab Ali Khan of Dewas, and Aman Ali Khan of Bhindi- bazar. He also studied the styles of Bahere Wahid Khan and Abdul Karim Khan and amalgamated the essence of the styles of these four maestros with his own intellectual approach to music, and conceived what is now known as the Indore gharana of music". During the first 25 years of his life, Amir Khan devoted consid- erable time to sargam-singing, what is known as "Merukhand prac- tice" consisting of varied permutations and combinations of kaleidoscopic swara-pattenns. These complicated "Khandameru" sar- gams, and flashing meteoric taans brightened his reposeful vilam- bit Khayals now and then. The"Merukhand" style of singing is men- tioned in the l4th century Sanskrit classic Sangeeta-ratnakara of Sarangdeva. Another significant aspect of Amir Khan's art imparting it a unique quality, was his refined voice and the way he moulded it to suit his chosen style. Endowed with the face of an intellectu- al, his temperament, like his music, was serene, unruffled. He never lost his temper. He extended the same courtesy to all, big and small, and listened attentively to even lesser artistes. Humility was native to him, his judgements were generous, and he was above petty jealousies. Although Amir Khan never rendered Thumris in his concerts, his disciples speak of the exquisite way in which he rendered Thumris for them in his intimate home-circle. His "cultured" voice was suited for the melodious Thumri style also. Amir Khan's sole concession to the speed-loving contemporary listeners was the Tarana in which he did considerable research. According to him, the Tarana-syllables have a mystical significance. Although his voice was at its best in the lower notes, it could also soar and sweep across far-off swaras with nimble grace. Such was the influence of his music that in an era of impatient listeners, Ustad Amir Khan was able to instil, by the example of his own art, a genuine and widespread love for serious, contemplative music into the hearts of young music lovers all over the country. He was strongly against the idea of any short-cuts to success in music. Even when Amir Khan did playback singing for some films, he re- fused to cut adrift from his classical moorings. The songs he rendered were always in highly classical style and in ragas like Darbari, Adana, Megh, Desi, Puriya Dhanasri etc. In his tribute the Ustad, Prof S.K. Saxena writes in the Sangeet Natak Akademi Journal : "Amir Khan was different and solitary because of his absolute indifference to the reactions of his audience while he was singing. He never seemed to make a conscious endeavour to please the audience. He faced them majestically, with his music alone, and with pure classicality--- Often his music seemed strangely disembodied from raga-tala distinctions into a kind of musical incense borne aloft on the very wings of devotion-- His music, at its best, was rarely a dazzle. It would be rather an influence, an atmosphere which would just be with us till long after the recital". There was a time when Amir Khan was a rage in Calcutta and no music conference there was complete without his recital. The Films Division of the Government of India has brought out a documentary film on his life in recognition of his great contribution to Hindustani music. For his eminence as a performing artiste and for his significant contributions to classical music, he was crowned with many honours such as the Fellowship of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Presidential Award, Padma Bhushan (1971) and the Swar Vilas from Sur Singar Samsad (1971). But these honours and his large following in the music world left him untouched. Amir Khan continued to be a very simple individual "accessible to all and sundry", and he never assumed any airs like some of his contemporaries. Though not educated in the formal sense, he was a highly sophisticated person who moved with dignity in the highest society where he was genuinely revered. It was considered a privilege to be his friend. Through his own efforts, he learnt Hindi, Urdu, Persian and a bit of Sanskrit, and he studied the writings of Guru Nanak, Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and others. Khan Saheb's son Ekram Ahmad Khan writes that it was these studies and his close friendship with Narayan Swami (of Calcutta) that led to his unique blend of Sufism. "Khan Saheb", writes his son, "was a Sufi in the true sense of the word--- a man without any specific religious ties, a man totally devoted to the oneness of mankind, a true citizen of the World". Amir Khan was a good composer and some of his compositions reflect these religious convictions of his. One instance is "Laaj rakh lijyo mori, Saheb, Sattar, Nirankar, Jai ke Daata, Tu Raheem Ram Teri maaya aparampar, Mohe tore karam pe aadhar Jag ke daata---." Whenever I heard Amir Khan singing the Khayal in Bairagi beginning with the words-- "Man sumirat nis din tumharo naam", I felt that the words and the spirit of the raga were most aptly suited for Amir Khan's musical temperament. Since 1968, Khan Saheb used to go to U.S.A in alternate years to spend the summer with his son Ekram Ahmad Khan, a graduate in chemical engineering from McGill University who has settled down in U.S.A as an Engineering Manager in Canada. [Sounds odd, doesn't it? Maybe he lives in Buffalo and drives to Toronto for work:-). I wonder where Ekram is today and if he has any private unissued recordings of the Khansaheb - RP] Amir Khan also used to go as a visiting professor of music at the State University of New York at New Paltz where "he planted not only the seeds of his music among the students, but also left behind the legacy of his Sufi philosophy". Unassuming in his ways, Amir Khan had the capacity to adjust himself perfectly to his environments. He seemed equally at home among the humble as well as among the highly sophisticated. What a pity that this great artiste was snatched away in the peak of his career! Here was a rare classicist who sustained his art by pure devotion, and yet enjoyed wide popularity.

Even now, more than 7 years after his untimely death, Amir Khan's music is still a living force because his voice is being frequently heard over AIR through his recordings in the Archives and his Long Playing Records. The Indore gharana of Amir Khan continues to live on through his pupils like Amarnath, Kanan, SrikanBakre, Singh Brothers, Kankana Banerji, Poorabi Mukherji and others. There are many others whose singing has been obviously coloured by the style of Amir Khan. The singer is gone, but his music is still with us.

Ananya

"Ananya" is a Sanskrit word and it means "like no other", or unique, incomparable. It is a fitting title to describe Ustad Amir Khan Saheb, one of India's greatest musicians, certainly of this century, and perhaps of all time. He is one of those rare individuals who have left an indelible mark on classical music in the way it is performed and appreciated, not just as regards vocal music but also instrumental music. A greatly respected artist, Ustad Amir Khan was a musician's musician because of his unique technical style and strong spiritual approach to his music. He was not bound by the limitations of any one Gharana (music family or tradition), while he absorbed all that was good and unique in various traditions. He experimented with many technicalities and took them to a level of greater awareness and appreciation by music-lovers. The great Sitarist, late Pandit Nikhil Banerjee described him as "a great thinker and a composer who was capable of translating his ideas into practice. At every stage of his life he was attempting a bold experiment and striving for perfection. He had a total command over the intrinsic purity of the classical formula of music but that never made him a conservative. He had the originality to defy the worn out conventional cannons of the khayal gayaki (the khayal vocal style) and to maintain a constructive approach towards the aesthetic beauty of a performance." Nikhil Banerjee continues "music with Amir Khan Saheb was a spiritual pursuit something which by awakening in our mind the image of beauty and harmony keeps the suggestion of eternal troth. He sought to concentrate within himself and conceive the raga image as the mother conceives the child and attained the profound meaning of the raga. It is this philosophy of music which places him in the spiritual tradition to which history stands witness." He was truly 'Ananya' and the world of Hindustani classical music will look back for ages to come and marvel that such a voice and style existed - especially as so far no one has been able to quite achieve it, let alone emulate it. He was one of a kind, the like of which will not likely be seen for quite some time to come.

Ustad Amir Khan : The man and his music

Ustad Amir Khan was born on 25th February 1912 and died in a car accident on 13th February 1974. He died in full possession of his powers, recognised as a great master of Khayal. Today, his influence can be seen not only on Khayal singing in general, but also on the modes of raga development by instrumentalists of many schools. Rashid Khan, the brilliant young singer is a prime example; so was the famous sitarist ( Late ) Nikhil Banerjee. The entire Imdadkhani School of Sitar, headed by Vilayat Khan, exhibit strongly Amir Khan's influence. Even Amjad Ali Khan, the Sarod player, is not altogether exempt from this influence.