The Transformation of Sarod Gharana:

Transmitting Musical Property in Hindustani

Music

journal or Senri Ethnological Studies

publication title
volume 71
page range 169-202
year 2008-03-31
URL http://hdl.handle.net/10502/1142
SENRI ETHNOLOGICAL STUDIES 71: 169-202 2008
Music and Society in South Asia: Perspectives from Japan
Edited by Yoshitaka Terada

The Transformation of Sarod Gharn:

Transmitting Musical Property in Hindustani Music

Masakazu Tamori
Toyo Eiwa University

North Indian Classical Music and Gharn

Owing to its historical process and musical features, Indian classical music is divided into
two styles: South Indian classical (Karnataka) music and North Indian classical
(Hindustani) music. The main difference between the two is that the former style has strong
Hindu characteristics whereas the latter, influenced by Islamic music during the medieval
period, shows a strong tendency toward improvisation. The social organization of
Hindustani music is characterized by the gharn, a musical community that consists of the
master-disciple institution as well as its musical style and knowledge.1)

Plate 1-1 Afghan rabb and sarod (front view) Plate 1-2 Afghan rabb and sarod (side view)
169
170 Masakazu Tamori

This essay explores the gharn of sarod 2) (Plate 1), one of the representative musical
instruments in Hindustani music, from the perspective of social anthropology. Musical
property, as the source of stylized playing tradition, must have been passed down from
father to son, master to disciple for at least three successive generations before the
gharns credentials can be established. In this paper, the period from the mid-19th
century (during the British colonial period) and the modern period from Indias
Independence until today are defined as the formation and post-formation periods of
gharns respectively.
Earlier studies of gharns focused on its musical style and musico-aesthetics. Their
scope then broadened to explore the socio-cultural and historical background of music as
ethno-musicological study. This expanded further to focus on the relationship between the
musicians and their surrounding social environment, that is, socio-anthropological study
(Erdman 1978, 1985; Neuman 1978, 1990 [1980]; Owens 1983). Erdman has pointed out
the importance of the patron-musician relationship in the development and expansion of the
gharn system of musical specialization (1978). She describes the social organization of
performing artists in Jaipur in the 19th century (1978, 1985).
Neuman, who studied the social world of musicians in Delhi, asserts that gharns as
we know them now did not appear before the mid-19th century, and the term itself probably
did not gain currency until the beginning of the 20th century (1978: 187). He suggests that
the formation of gharns as social units has been the result of: (a) the hierarchical
distinction between soloists (Kalwants) and accompanists (Mrss); (b) the migration of
rural Mrss to the cities and their transformation from folk to classical musicians; and (c)
social changes in Indian society since the mid-19th century (1978, 1990 [1980]).
Neuman also interpreted the reason why the core family of a gharn was almost
always Muslims, as cousin marriage of any type of Hindus in North India is strictly
prohibited, whereas among Muslims it is allowed: indeed, among Muslim musicians, it is
the preferred form of marriage, and it is stated by them to be an explicit strategy by which
musical knowledge is kept within the family. It would appear, from an outsiders vantage
point, that such intermarriage has been an important way in which gharns have
maintained the integrity of their musical styles (Neuman 1978: 197). In the Muslim world
of musicians, cousin marriage was a strategy to keep musical knowledge within the family.
Owens has studied the Dagar gharn of dhrupad, which is the most ancient authentic
classical music style. She comments that musical knowledge, which was not handed over to
outsiders, was the exclusive property of the lineage (1983: 162). She attempts to illustrate
the content of musical knowledge and its transmission from the viewpoint of continuity and
change following Independence. The exclusive knowledge of music that is kept secret from
outsiders and handed over only after marriage in the form of a gift exchange can be called
musical property.
These studies threw light on how gharn possessing musical property underwent
development and changes over the passage of time. However, it does not reveal how the
gharns were formed through the combination of marriage relationships and master-
disciple relationships, and also how their musical properties were maintained and
transmitted.
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 171

This paper will first describe the content of secret knowledge in music and musical
property, and then deal with the system of its hereditary transfer. It will examine the origin
and lineage of the gharns of sarod. Lastly, it will clarify how musical property was
transmitted by the combination of cousin-marriage and the master-disciple relationship
during the formation period. No such correlation, however, has been found in the post-
formation period. This transformation of social relationships corresponds to the changes in
the larger socio-cultural system in modern India, and affects the transmission of musical
property and the vicissitudes of gharns.

Gharn and Musical Property

Hierarchy of Musical Knowledge and its Form of Transfer
It is not an exaggeration to say that the ultimate aim of Indian classical music is its
delineation of rga.3) Hindustani rga is not only a mode of coherent melody (musical
theory), but each rga has regulations specifying its particular time and season, suitable
emotion (rasa) and power of expression (prakrt). In performance, the personal
understanding, imagination, expression and technique of the performer are of course
important, but a musician never fails to stress the importance of the authority and
authenticity of his gharn.
Deshpande, a scholar of khayl in Hindustani music, goes to the extent of saying, In
fact the terms classical Hindustani music and gharn music are synonymous (1973:
3). A musical performance is an improvisation on a particular rga. In order to learn this
improvisation, one has to belong to a gharn. One should bear in mind that the technique
of improvisation within the frame of the same rga differs from gharn to gharn. It is
not sufficient simply to belong to a gharn; the musician must develop an intimate and
total relationship with his guru by serving him. It is therefore only by developing a total
relationship with the guru that the disciple inherits the secret musical knowledge. The
process of refining ones musical skills under a particular gharn helps establish the
identity of a musician. At the same time, while a musician endeavors to establish himself
and his reputation, he also contributes to enriching his gharn. He slowly learns the secret
knowledge of his own gharn and with the passage of time becomes able to create more,
which he passes on in turn to his own disciples.4)
A possible definition of a gharn of vocal or instrumental music or dance states that
it consists of:
1) a lineage of at least three successive generations that have produced distinguished or
famous musicians; and
2) a school that has followed and transmitted a common musical style.5)
The former is relevant to genealogical legitimacy (vamsha parampar) and the latter
to the master-disciple relationship (guru-ishya parampar). When a musician talks about
our gharn (hamar gharn), he either emphasizes his lineage or his school tradition.
A professional Muslim musician usually stresses his lineage, whereas a professional Hindu
musician (who usually learned from Muslims or from a school/college teacher) talks about
his guru or school. There are two main features to a gharn. The first is the vertical or
172 Masakazu Tamori

patrilineal relationship (khndn) whereby the particular secrets of technique and final
wisdom of a gharn are handed over from father to son. The second, horizontal
relationship, in which a guru hands over his repertory and technique to his disciples, can be
described as more liberal because the disciple may be an outsider rather than a family
member. When a musician talks about his gharn, he wants the listener to understand that
he has accumulated the wisdom of (a) ancient Indian music (rgas), and (b) court music of
the medieval period. In other words, a gharn means a pure tradition (shuddha
parampar) and the musician is staking a claim to be a successor of authenticity.
Owens comments that the gharn can expand to include the families of the disciples
as well, but relatively few such students become real successors to the tradition and that
Sometimes this is because non-family members have been excluded from certain
knowledge which is at the heart of the tradition (1983: 161). She called such secrecy of
musical knowledge the exclusive property of the lineage (ibid.: 162).
Thakur Jaidev Singh, a famous patron and scholar of Indian classical music, describes
three types of teaching as follows.

The teacher usually did not impart the secrets of his art to everybody. His pupils consisted of
three categories:
1) khsul-khs;
2) khs;
3) gandbandh.
The khsul-khs teaching, in which the teacher imparted all his knowledge without
concealing anything, was meant only for the sons of the teacher. The khs talm or teaching
was meant only for very closely related pupils. In this the teacher did not impart all his
knowledge. He imparted only about three-fourth of his art, one-fourth being reserved for his
sons. The gandbandh talm was meant for those whom the teacher had accepted as his
pupils through a formal ceremony (gandbandhan). In this, the teacher imparted only about
fifty percent of what he knew. (Nayar 1989: 40)

But there were still many differences in the teaching of each gandbandh. Of course, it
was not easy to enter a gharn and become a disciple with the status of gandbandhan.
Before the 20th century, only patrons could reach the status of khs, except for family
members of gharn. It was almost impossible for those who were neither family members
nor patrons to learn the music of a gharn. For example, the difficulty faced by a
commoner in becoming a ghandbandha-ishya and then attaining the category of khs is
depicted in the biography of Allauddin Khan (see, for example, Bhattacharya 1979; McNeil
1992: 274-85). Certain knowledge which is at the heart of the tradition (Owens 1983:
161) may be nothing but the secret knowledge that was imparted to khsul khs. In order to
explain the content of such secret knowledge, one has to understand first the Seniys,6) who
were the musical authority on Hindustani classical music from the 16th century and were
the foundation of modern gharns, and secondly, the performance structure of rga.
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 173

Musical Authority and Secret Knowledge

Seniys (Senis) are the descendants of Miyan Tansen (d. 1586)7) who was one of the
nine jewels (nav ratna) in the court of Akbar (reigned 1556-1605), the third Mughal
Emperor. Akbar inducted various musicians from all over India, Iran and Central Asia to his
court, and Tansen was their leader. In this paper, the term Seniy refers to the direct
descendants of Tansen, and Seni gharn is used for the group that includes disciples who
do not have a blood relationship with the Seniys. The Seniys developed dhrupad 8) which
were originally hymns sung in the temples to praise the gods, as court music. At the same
time the Seniys specialized in bn (vn) and Indian rabb in instrumental music. The
lineage of Tansen that specializes in bn is called Seni-bnkar and the lineage specializing in
Indian rabb is known as Seni-rabbiy. In vocal music the words express the meaning,
whereas in instrumental music the expression relies on the structure of the instrument and
its playing technique.
Rga music consists of two parts: the lp, which does not have a rhythmic cycle; and
the gat in instrumental music, which is performed and improvised with a rhythmic cycle
played by an accompanying percussionist. In lp, the special features of a rga are shown
step by step. In a gat, the composition (bandsh) remains at the core; improvisation is seen
in forms such as tn and tda.
The dhrupad style (ang) in the instrumental music of bn and Indian rabb was
developed by the Seniys. The method of developing a rga in instrumental music was
secret knowledge, kept strictly within the Seniys. Bandsh in a gat is a condensed form of
aesthetic beauty with a set of rules for each rga. The maestro who sought for perfection in
rga developed his own bandsh,9) and his descendants kept it as a sacred treasure (Nayar
1989: 80) within their own gharn as musical property, which was later gifted through
marriage.
The Seniys, who developed dhrupad as vocal music and bn and rabb as
instrumental music, did not teach these to outsiders. Instead they taught them khayl 10)
vocal music and surbahr, surringr, sitr and sarod as instrumental music.11) The lp
and the bandsh are very important in dhrupad vocal music and in dhrupad-ang
instrumental music. On the other hand, the scope of lp and bandsh is minimized in
khayl-ang, with extra scope provided for improvisation.
Salamat Hussain Khan, a disciple of the Seniy, has commented: there are things
that are not taught to students outside the family. There are some particular exercises for
practice (riyz) which are never taught to everyone (in Brihaspati 1966: 517; see also
Owens 1983: 161).
The practice method, which shapes the style of performance, was also the secret
practical knowledge of the gharn. Sayyad Ibne Ali described the transmission of musical
property in the following terms.

Once Wazir Khan Sahib was in the immbr, I asked him to swear by touching the flag of
the sacred place not to keep back any knowledge. He did it on my request; henceforth he
taught me hor and dhrupad. I put his teaching in writing. He declared that this teaching was
meant for me and his sons; if nobody puts these notes to use I was asked to burn these notes.
I passed on his knowledge to his descendants. (Owens 1983: 161)
174 Masakazu Tamori

Wazir Khan (1860-1926) of Seniy, shocked by his talented sons death, decided to
impart khs talm to only a few senior disciples (McNeil 1992: 276). Thus, should a guru
have no son or suitable successor, or have lost his son, he sometimes used to teach
multilateral cousins or senior disciples from outside of the family as his adopted sons.
Practically, as mentioned later, the origin and development of gharns depended on the
talented senior disciple of Seniy.

Transmission of Musical Property and Marriage Relationship

The majority of musicians who performed and transmitted Hindustani classical music
before Independence were Muslims. Most of them, however, were the descendants of
Brahmins or Rajiputs who converted to Islam during the Mughal Empire. It is well known
that the founder of Seni gharn was Tansen, who was originally a Brahmin named
Ramtannu Pandey. The founder of Seni-bnkar, Naubat Khan (Hindu name: Mishri Singh),
who married Tansens daughter Saraswati, was originally a Rajiput. In order to maintain
and continue the rendering of sacred rga music they had inherited from their ancestors,
these musicians converted into Islam. They performed in the court of the Mughals and were
patronized by them. According to Bhattacharya, all their descendants for about 300 years,
from Naubat Khan to Wazir Khan, maintained their Hindu names in addition to their
Muslim names (1979: 226).
In order to establish themselves in the court of Mughals as accomplished musicians,
immigrants from Iran and Afghanistan had to learn rga music from the Seniys. All the
founders of each gharn of vocal khayl music and instrumental sitr and sarod have
learnt Hindustani rga music from the Seniys. In other words, the roots of each gharn
may be found in the Seniys. If three successive generations following a soloist succeeded
in maintaining and transmitting musical property, they were regarded as a gharn.
As already mentioned above, it was the core lineage in the male line that maintained
and managed musical property. On the other hand, there was another important female role
that did not surface in the core lineage. This was the marriage relationship, which played a
vital role in the formation of gharns.
The marriage system has strongly influenced the making of gharns. Before taking
up the case of sarod gharns, an overview of marriage systems and gift-exchange systems
amongst the Muslims of India is in order. Owens says, Women of the family line of these
patrilineally organized gharns have of course been family members but not gharn
members in the sense that they have not been professional musicians (1983: 160). When a
musician receives his wife from a family, however, he also receives the musical property of
that family. As a result, this not only enables him to develop his own musical skills and
knowledge, but also brings new blood into the gharn as a community of practice. The
gift of musical property along with the women adds variety to the existing musical property.
Barring certain exceptions, a Muslim can marry any relative of his lineage. In
marriage, gift-exchange is limited to a mahr that goes from the boys family to the girls
family. However, in the case of Indian Muslims, although the dowry12) custom is prevalent,
actual practice varies from place to place and from family to family.13) Though there is no
specific caste system among Indian Muslims, they usually marry within their bh-bnd or
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 175

birdar,14) a kind of homogeneous marriage circle based on descent, occupation and

status.15) Indian Muslims are mainly converted Hindus. Even after their conversion they
continue practicing the Hindu custom of dowry (Faridi and Siddiqi 1992).
As yet there has been no systematic research on marriage relationships among Indian
Muslim musicians. From the limited available literature and interviews with musicians,
cases have come to light in which musical property was gifted as a womans marriage
dowry. When Mishri Singh married the daughter of Tansen (Saraswati), he is inferred to
have received from Tansen 200 dhurpads as dowry (Singh 1995: 181). These dhurpads
were the best compositions (bandsh) of Tansen. Further, the descendants of Tansen are said
to have passed on Tansens book of compositions as dowry. It was important that
daughters did not marry outsiders (Neuman 1978: 218, n24). An outsider means a man
who is other than a close relative, but in a wider sense is within the birdar and in a
narrow sense has practiced cousin marriage.

The Origin and Lineage of Sarod Gharn

Four Gharns of Sarod
Four sarod gharns have existed to date, according to their descendants.16) The names
of the founders are given in brackets. The gharns given below are self-styled (self-
proclaimed) by their descendants, who claim that their ancestors were either the court
musicians of a particular court or lived in that city. There are, however, other opinions
(gharn names) about them too.
a) Shahjahanpur gharn (Enayet Ali Khan)
b) Lucknow gharn (Niyamatullah Khan)
c) Gwalior gharn (Ghulam Ali Khan)
d) Maihar gharn (Allauddinn Khan)
The core lineage (family) of the first three gharns (a, b, c) are all Muslim families
who claim to be of Ashrafs17) race, i.e. Bangash18) Pathan19) of Afghanistan. The founder of
the last Maihar gharn declared that his ancestor was a Hindu Brahmin. The descendants
of the Lucknow and Shahjahanpur gharns claim that their ancestors converted Afghan
rabb into sarod, while the descendants of Maihar gharn explain that their ancestor re-
modified the initial sarod into a more sophisticated version.
The living successors (gharnedr) of these four gharns (as of January 2001) are as
follows (*indicates sitr player).
a) Irfan Muhammad Khan (b. 1954), Shahid Khan (b. 1940), Idris Khan* (b. 1955),
Aqueer Khan* (b. 1966)
b) Gulfam Ahmed Khan (b. 1956), Nurullah Khan* (b. 1938), Ghulam Sabir (b. 1948)
c) Amjad Ali Khan (b. 1945), Rahmat Ali Khan (b. 1940)
d) Ali Akbar Khan (b. 1922)

Famous non-family living musicians of the Gwalior gharn include Buddadev Das
Gupta (b. 1938), Kalyan Mukherjea (b. 1948), and Narendra Nath Dhar (b. 1955). The
representative non-family musician of the Maihar gharn is Ravi Shankar (b. 1920).
176 Masakazu Tamori

This paper focuses on two of the four gharns, the Shahjahanpur gharn and the
Lucknow gharn. (The two later combined to form the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharn
of those whose ancestors came from Afghanistan to India.) It further discusses their
marriage relationships, master-disciple systems, and transformations. This paper also takes
up another Pathan sarodiy, the Gwalior gharn, in the section on Shahjahanpur gharn,
because of the relationships that exist between them.
In this paper, I use the term sarodiy not as a general occupation (Sarodist or Sarod
player), but as socio-historical concept referring to a military musician caste.

History and Oral Tradition of Pathan Sarodiy

Bahlul Lodi established the Pathan dynasty in North India. He was the governor of the
Punjab during the Sayyid dynasty (1414-1450). Lodi dethroned the Prime Minister of the
Sayyid dynasty in 1451 and declared himself the first Sultan of the Lodi dynasty (1451-
1526). He forged a good relationship with the Rajputs, but the next Sultan and his son could
not maintain this relationship, and became their enemies. This was one of the factors why
the Lodi dynasty could not endure in India. Taking advantage of this confused situation,
Babur of Kabul invaded India and overthrew the Lodi dynasty.
Babur (reigned 1526-30) became the first emperor of the Mughal dynasty, but he
reigned for only a short period and died in Agra. Humayun (reigned 1530-1540, 1955-
1956), his son, succeeded him but due to the internal rivalry amongst his brothers, he was
defeated by Sher Shah Sur and had to escape to Persia. Sher Shah (reigned 1540-1545)
established the second Pathan dynasty, the Sur dynasty (1540-53), in Delhi. He belonged to
the third generation of Pathans who came to India from Afghanistan. Sher Shahs
grandfather was a horse trader in Afghanistan. However, he did not do well. As a result, he
moved into North India and served under the regional governor of the Lodi dynasty. His
grandson Sher Shah began serving as an aide to the regional governor, and owing to his
intelligence and capabilities he became the ruler of north India. Sher Shah died an early and
unexpected death, and the Sur dynasty met its untimely end.
According to the sarodiys, their ancestors arrived in India during this era of conflict.
Umar Khan of the Shahjahanpur gharn described his ancestors in the following manner.

Along with Baburs army, came some Afghans, who used to walk ahead of the army, playing
army-music. They were called Mrs. They used to play Rabab and Duff. They played and
sang the songs of battle and bravery. Mrs had a respectable place in army. Humayun was
defeated by Sher Shah and went to Iran. At that time some of the Mrs went with him,
while some remained in India, as Sher Shah himself was an Afghan. He gave many jgrs
toMrs. Mrs also lived in the areas where Pathan families were living. (Umar Khan
1976: 95)

Aqueer Khan who belongs to another family of the Shahjahanpur gharn, describes
his roots according to what he has heard from his grandfather, father, and other relatives.20)
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 177

Our ancestors came to India along with the army of Babur. They were quite respected and
were called Mr Jung. During the reign of Shahjahan, they were given jgrs as prizes.
Where ever the Pathans lived, the sarodiys also came and settled over there. Their main
places were Bulandshahar (U.P.), Farukhabad, Kayam ganj, Ramur, Shahjahanpur and
Jalalabad. (Aqueer Khan n.d.)

Aqueer Khan and his ancestors also claim that their roots are in the Mr who came
from Afghanistan with Baburs army. According to them, the Mrs were warriors who led
the army playing rabb and raised the morale of the troops, thus being first warriors and
then musicians. This explanation indicates that they perhaps wanted to emphasize the
difference between the mrss who belonged to the rural-folk-musician caste, and the Mrs.
Gulfam Ahmad of the Lucknow gharn (n.d.) explains, Sarod and rabb have been
existing together for centuries. Though their shapes they resemble each other but are two
different instruments. Sarod was played in the battle field along with drums and nagadas,
where the rabb was played either by sufi fakirs or mrss of Afghanistan. It can therefore
be said that the sarodiys belonged to the Mrs of the early medieval period.
On one hand, the sarodiys claim that their settlement in India dates back to the period
of Sher Shah. Their direct ancestors settled in India during or after Shahjahans reign when
they were allotted grants (jgrs) in lieu of salary. Their duties included breeding and
keeping horses and rendering support for the army in times of war. Horse trading and
breeding was a common profession in Pathan society during the medieval period. Sher
Shahs grandfather, for example, was a horse trader in Afghanistan. This could have been
the reason that sarodiy families were either horse traders or army musicians.21)
Irfan Khan (b. 1954), younger son of Umar Khan, comments on the origin of the three
gharns as follows.

During the early part of the 18th century three Afghans belonging to the Bangash clan came
to India, they were Najaf Ali Khan, Madar Khan and Md. Hashmi Khan. Najaf Ali Khan and
Md. Hashmi Khan were horse traders and Madar Khan held a commission in the cavalry i.e.
he was a risaldr. Since they were Pathans they naturally settled in Rohilkhand, a region in
Awadh where Pathans held sway. (Irfan Muhammad Khan 1991: 43)

In this connection, Najaf Ali Khan is the ancestor of the Shajahanpur gharn, Madar
Khan is the ancestor of the Lucknow (Bulandshahar) gharn, and Muhammad Hasimi
Khan is the ancestor of the Gwalior gharn. The home provinces of Pathans in India were
Rohilkhand, Awad and their surroundings (see map). Shajahanpur belonged to Rohilkhand
and Lucknow was the royal city of Awadh.

Shajahanpur Gharn
Shahjahanpur is located about 160 km northwest of Lucknow. Shahjahanpur was
established in 1647 by the Pathan governor, Bahadur Khan Rohilla,22) during the reign of
Shahjahan (reigned 1628-58). According to Kolff, who investigated the ethno-history of the
siphi market in North India, Bahadur Khan Rohilla, then Abdullah Khans successor as
178 Masakazu Tamori

Bulandshahar

Shahjahanpur

Map Awadh in 1775 and 1856. Based on Kippen (1988).

jgrdr of Kalpi and Kanauj, brought a caravan of 9,000 Afghans to populate all 52
mohallas of the newly founded city of Shahjahanpur (1990: 13). A mohalla is a bounded
area or neighborhood in which people of similar professions or families lived together. In
the words of Vatuk, The mohalla is more than a defined geographical space; it is social
space (1972: 149).
Out of the 52 mohallas, sarodiy families lived in 11. This fact substantiates the oral
tradition of the Shahjahapur gharn, There were 11 mohallas of sarodiys in
Shahjahanpur. However, only four gharns became famous (Aqueer Khan n.d.). The
names of those gharns might have derived from the mohallas.

1) Sinzai
2) Jalalnagar
3) Par
4) Bijilipura

The ancestors of each of these gharns are as follows.

1) Gul Muhammad Shah Khan (Hasan Ali Khan)

2) Gaus Muhammad Shah Khan (Hussain Ali Khan)
3) Ghulam Ali Khan
4) Murad Ali Khan
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 179

It is not clear whether the ancestors of each gharn were contemporary with each
other.23) It may be said, however, that they lived somewhere between the end of the 18th
century and the late 19th century.
Of those four families, the direct descendants of Sinzai claimed to have established the
Shahjahanpur gharn and the disciples of Jalalnagar claimed to have established the
Jalalnagar gharn. There are no musicians who are direct descendants in the Jalalnagar
gharn. It is believed that the ancestors of the Sinzai and Jalalnagar gharns, Guru
Muhammad Shah and Gaus Muhammad Shah, came from the same lineage (khndn). The
Shahjahanpur gharn is a single entity, but in detailed terms it is divided into two groups:
the Sinzai group and the Jalalnagar group.
According to the oral tradition of the Jalalnagar group, Ghulam Ali of Par was related
to the court of Farrukhabad, which is very close to Shahjahanpur. Murad Ali of Bijilipura
was related to the court of Darbhanga in Bihar. Farrukahbad was established in 1714 by
Muhammad Khan Bangash, leading an army of 12,000 Pathans, who fought for
Farrukhsiyar (reigned 1713-1719). Mohammad Khan was the chief of Bangash Pathans,
who ruled over Kayamganji.
Amjad Ali Khan of the Gwalior gharn asserts that he comes from the Bangash
Pathan clan of Afghanistan, and may be a descendant of this Ghulam Ali. He does not say
anything about his ancestors relationship with the court of Shahjahanpur or Farrukhabad.24)
He does, however, emphasize his ancestors relationship with the Rewa and Gwalior courts,
which were ruled by Hindu Rajas (Malhotra 1973).25) He claims himself to be from
Gwalior. Ghulam Ali and Murad Ali are believed to have been either father and son or
brothers, but nothing has been said about their relationship in the oral tradition of the
Jalalnagal group. Moreover, there is hardly any accurate information about the Gwalior
gharn of sarodiys.26) This paper will not therefore treat the lineage of Ghulam Ali and
Murad Ali as part of the Shahjahanpur gharn.
The founder of the Sinzai group (Table 1) was Enayet Ali Khan (1790-1883), who was
the son of Gul Mohammad Shah Khan (Hasan Ali Khan or Insaf Khan).27) He became a
disciple of Kasim Ali Khan of Seniy, and was an Indian rabb player. Kasim Ali was a
court musician of the Bhaval district in Dhaka, where Enayet Ali also became a court
musician. He was the first ever Indian musician to go to England to play sarod, and played
during Queen Victorias coronation ceremony (Umar Khan 1976: 95). His son, Shafayet Ali
Khan (1838-1915), was a famous sarodiy who worked in Azamgarh and Junagarh.
It was Sakhawat Hussain Khan (1875-1955), the son of Shafayet Ali Khan, who made
this gharn famous (Plate 2). In the 3rd All India Music Conference held in Varanasi
(1919), he had the honor of being included among some of the outstanding sarodiys of the
time, such as Fida Hussain Khan and Karamatullah Khan. After listening to his
performance, Bhatkhande decided to recruit Sakhawat Hussain as a professor of sitr and
sarod at Marris College (later Bhatkhande Music College), founded in 1926. From 1935 to
1937, Sakhawat Hussain took a break to become the chief musician of Madam Menakas
dance troupe. He toured Europe repeatedly with Menaka and her troupe. He won medals
when he played at the World Olympics held in Berlin, and also gave sarod recitals for
Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini (Chaubey 1958b; Misra 1985).
180 Masakazu Tamori

Table 1 Shahjahanpur Gharn (Sinzai)

Guru Mohammad Shah Khan

(Hasan Ali Khan or Insaf Khan)

Enayet Ali Khan

(1790-1883)

Shafayet Khan
(1838-1915)

Sakhawat Hussain Khan

(1875-1955)

Umar Khan Ilyas Khan

(1916-1982) (1924-1989)

Shahid Khan Irfan Khan Idris Khan

(b. 1940) (b. 1954) (b. 1955)

Plate 2 Sakhawat H.Khan (right)

The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 181

His sons were Umar Khan (1916-1982) and Ilyas Khan (1924-1989). Umar Khan
became a renowned sarodiy and music scholar, and settled in Calcutta. Ilyas Khan,
professor of sitr in Bhatkahande Music College in Lucknow, became a disciple of Yusuf
Ali Khan. Although his father Sakhawat Hussain gave initial training to Ilyas Khan, he
thought so highly of his close friend Yusuf Ali that he insisted on his sons receiving most of
their talm from him (Misra 1985: 35). Yusuf Ali was a disciple of the Seni-bnkar gharn.
In addition to his own gharns performance skill, Ilyas khan acquired the lp and gat
technique of bkar-bj.28) In consequence, many gharnedr musicians of the Lucknow-
Shahjahanpur gharn learned music from Ilyas Khan.
It was Fida Hussain Khan (1855-1927), who made this gharn famous (Table 2; Plate
3). He became a disciple of Amir Khan Seniya (father of Wazir Khan), who belonged to the
Seni-bnkar (Roy Choudhury n.d.: 33). Fida Hussain participated in the second and third
All India Music Conferences in Delhi (1918) and Varanasi (1919) respectively. He won the
gold medal and was highly esteemed. It is said that he was the ideal sarod player for Hafiz
Ali Khan of the Gwalior gharn and Allauddin Khan of the Maihar gharn (Chaubey
1958a: 24). He was deprived of his beloved son, Taj Muhammmad Khan, as successor.
The senior disciple of Fida Hussain, Musharraf Hussain Khan, did not have children.29)
He therefore adopted three sons of his younger brother Musawwar Khan and taught them
sitr (Aqueer Khan n.d.). One of these three adopted sons was Akhtar Khan (d. 1989), and
his sons name in the Jalalnagar gharn is Aqueer Khan.30)

Table 2 Shahjahanpur Gaharr (Jalarnagar)

Gaus Mohammad Shah Khan

Hussain Khan)

Hasan Khan

Fida Hussain Khan

(1955-1927)
(disciple)

Taj Mohammad Khan Musharraf Hussain Khan

(d. 1925)

Aktar Khan
(d. 1989)

Aqueer Khan
(b. 1966)
182 Masakazu Tamori

Plate 3 Fida Hussain Khan

Lucknow Gharn
Lucknow is now the capital of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), and was the site of the royal court
of the Awadh dynasty (1720-1856). Lucknow became the musical center of North India
after the decline of the Mughal Empire. The name of the Lucknow gharn dates back to
the distinguished activity of Niyamatullah Khan (1809-1911) in the royal court of Wajid Ali
Shah (reigned 1847-1856), last nawab of the Awadh dynasty. Niyamatullah became a
disciple of Basat Khan Seniy, who was the music guru of Wajid Ali, and moved to
Calcutta with Basat Khan followed by Wajid Ali. His home province in India, however, was
Baglasi in Bulandshanar, which is located between Delhi and Rohilkhand. Umar Khan
described this gharn as follows.

An independent sarod line based in Bulandshahar was one that produced the two famous
sarod players Niyamatullah Khan and Kharamatullah Khan in the late 19th and early 20th
century. The originators of this line were again Afghans who had come to India as soldiers
and musicians in early Mughal times. One of them, Gul Khan (1728-1779), was a trader who
supplied horses to the army. He was presented a property grant in Bulandshahar. (Miner
1992: 141)

Historically the Lucknow gharn was known as the Bulandshahar gharn (Table 3).
It was Karamatullan Khan (1848-1933) and Asadullah Khan (1852-1919), sons of
Niyamatullah, who made this gharn famous. Karamatullah Khan (Plate 4) taught many
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 183

Table 3 Lucknow Sarod Gharn (Bagrasi)

Madar Khan

Gul Khan

Haqdad Khan
(1765-1836)

Niyamatullah Khan
(1809-1911)

Karamatullah Khan Asadullah Khan

(1848-1933) (1852-1919)

Ishtiaque Ahmad Khan Waliullah Khan

(1919-1967) (1890-1951)

Mukhtar KhanGulfam Khan Nurullah Khan

(1940-1994) (b. 1956) (b. 1938)

Plate 4 Karamatullah Khan

184 Masakazu Tamori

wealthy Hindu students and also wrote a book titled Secret of Miracles or Blessed
Melodies (Isrr-i karmat urf naghmt-i namat) (1908). His younger brother Asadullah
Khan was known as Professor Kaukab and taught music at a private school in Calcutta (cf.
Sharar 1994 [1975]: 137-141). He is believed to have introduced the sarod to Bengal. Both
brothers went to Paris with Motilal Nehru. They were the first Indian musicians to visit
France (Umar Khan 1978).
The oral history of this gharn has been recorded in the following terms.

The famous sarodiy, Haqdad Khan Saheb (1765-1836: son of Gul Khan), was in the army
and belonged to Bagrasi in the Bulandshahar district. His eldest son was Sarkar Niyamatullah
Khan who was a very famous in playing sarod, and had learnt from the grand son of Tansen,
Basat Khan Sahib, rabbi. Niyamatullah Khan was educated very widely on Indian Music by
Basat Khan. Niyamatullah Khan served in the court of Badshah Wajid Ali Shah of Lucknow
and later went to Nepal. His two sons became very famous in playing sarod. His elder son
was Karamatullah Khan, who lived in Allahabad and Calcutta. He had several talented good
disciples namely - Baran Seel, Kali Pal, Taru Bose, Motilal Banaras-wale, Sakhawat Khan
etc. Karamatullah Khans son was Ishtiyaque Ahmad Khan (1919-1967). He was also a very
famous sarodiy, but died at a young age. He was working at the Delhi Radio Station.
Ishtiyaque Ahmad Khans son is Mukhtiyar Khan (1941-1994). He also played sarod and
served at the Delhi Radio Station. The younger brother of Karamatullah Khan was Asadullah
Khan Kaukab. Asadullah Khan was a well known respected Pandit of sarod. He had 3 sons:
Waliullah Khan.
Haqdad Khans brother Karam Khan was a very good sarodiy. He was in the court of
Alwar. His son Kifayat Khan, had two sons, named Shafiqullah Khan (famous sitr player)
and Rafiqullah Khan (famous Harmonium player). Shafiqullah Khan has a son who plays
sarod, his name is Ghulam Sabir (Aqueer Khan n.d.).

As described above, there were two lineages of sarodiys in Lucknow (Bulandshahar):

Haqdad Khan and his younger brother, Karam Khan (Table 4). The family of Karam Khan
served the court of Alwar near Jaipur, but their homeland was Dholpur (Dhaulpur) near
Agra. The Lucknow gharn is a single entity, in detailed terms it is divided into two
groups: the Bagrasi group (lineage from Haqdad Khan to Gulfam Ahmad) and the Dholpur
group (lineage from Karam Khan to Ghulam Sabir).

From Sarodiy to Sarodist

As the form of war changed, the role of the sarodiy as Mr declined. Their main
income was from jgrs, horse breeding and trading. One of them started learning Indian
classical music directly from a Seniy in the 19th century.
Haqdad Khan, father of Niyamatullah Khan who was the founder of the Lucknow
gharn, was not a professional musician but a soldier-musician. Niyamatullah Khan also
spent his youth as a horse trader. The playing of Afghan rabb was only a hobby or side
business for them at this time. The story of Niyamatullahs turning point is described as
follows.
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 185

Table 4 Lucknow Sarod Gharn (Dholpur)

(Gul Khan)

Karam Khan

Kifayet Khan

Rafiqullah Khan Shafiqullah Khan

(1865-1971) (1870-1975)

Raiqullah (non-musician)

Ghulam Sabir
(b. 1946)

Amongst others Rajab Khan was a famous Sarod Player who also happened to be the Father-
in-Law of the legendary Sarod player Sarkar Niyamatullah Khan. Sarkar Niyamatullah Khan
used to trade horses and elephants from India to Arabs. His father-in-low Rajab Khan once
told him How can a trader of horses understand and appreciate music when he is always
immense in the stench and odor of horses. These words changed Niyamatullah Khans entire
life. He took it as a challenge and vowed that he would return home only after achieving his
goal of becoming a famous musician. He joined the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and
became a disciple of Basat Khan who was a descendant of Tansen. Niyamatullah Khan
offered one lakh silver coins to his Guru and started learning Hindustani rgas. He was an
ardent and devoted disciple. During his training he took his gurus permission to alter the
design of Sarod because it was not possible to do st and mnd work on Sarod. His guru
Basat Khan gave him permission to change the existing form of sarod. Niyamatullah Khan
took his sarod to an ironsmith and asked him to change the center wooden main body and put
iron plate in its place. He got iron, brass and bronze strings attached to his sarod. This fully
changed the sound and lent depth to the music. He intensively practiced on the new sarod.
His guru was greatly pleased and asked Niyamatullah Khan to play sarod in a function
organized in the court of Wajid Ali Shah. Nawab was extremely impressed by his sarod
playing and conferred upon him the title of Sarkar. (Gulfam Ahmad Khan n.d.)

According to descendants of Pathan sarodiys, their origin is attributed to Mrs from

Afghanistan who came to India during the reign of Babur (reigned 1526-30). On the other
hand, the memory of their direct ancestors goes only as far as Shahjahan or Aurangzeb. It
was in the 19th century that the founder of their gharn learnt rga music from a Seniy.
186 Masakazu Tamori

In terms of three successive generations, the definition of a gharn, it may be presumed

that the gharn was formed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With the
formation of the gharn, these sarodiys as a caste started becoming sarod musicians,
Sarodists. This period overlaps the period of the British Empire.
The Mughal Empire and Awadh dynasty collapsed and the musicians had to migrate to
Bengal in east India, Rajasthan in west India and Rampur, center of Rohelkhand, in search
of patrons who would love and appreciate their music. The nawab of Rampur had cordial
relations with the British. The development of the railway in the mid-19th century made
their movement to different places much easier.
The sarod gharns of Shahjahanpur and Lucknow met and developed marriage
relations. This was a period of agitation, a time when Islam and Hindu kingships were
collapsing and India was preparing to become independent from British rule.

Social Relationship of Sarod Gharn during the Formation Period

Shahjahanpur Gharn
As mentioned earlier, there were at least two groups of sarodiys in the Shahjahanpur
gharn: Sinzai and Jalalnagar. The marriage relationships of the Sinzai group will be
examined first (Table 5). The two sons of Sakhawat Hussain married two daughters of his

Table 5 Shahjahanpur Gharn



Najaf Khan

Kaler Khan

Ga us Moha mm a d S ha h Kha n Guru Moha mma d S ha h Khan

Ha sa n Kha n E na ye t Al i Kha n

Fida Hussa i n Kha n Sha f aye t Al i K han

Ta j Moha mmad Kha n S a k h a wa t Hussain Kh a n S u ja t K ha n

(non-musician

Umar Khan Ilyas Khan

Shahid Khan Irfan Khan Idris Khan
marriage relation (b. 1940) (b. 1954) (b. 1955)
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 187

younger brother. This is a patrilateral parallel-cousin marriage (PPCM).

Fida Hussain of Jalalnagar married Enayet Alis daughter from the Sinzai group
(Miner 1997: 141). If we believe that Enayet Alis father and Fida Hussains grandfather
were brothers, it was a PPCM. The disciple of Fida Hussain, Musharraf Hussain married
the daughter of Shafayet Ali, but did not have children.31) He therefore adopted three sons
of Musawwar Khan, his younger brother, and taught them sitr (Aqueer n.d.). One of the
three sons, Akhtar Khan (d. 1989), took Sakhawat Hussains daughter as his bride.
Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage (MCCM) came into existence with this phenomenon
where the sons and disciples of the Jalalnagar group took their wives from the Sinzai group
(Table 6). In other words Jalalnagar become a wife-taker (WT) and Sinzai a wife-giver
(WG). MCCM (mothers brothers daughter: MBD) is a marriage to strengthen the relations
between guru and ishya, where the guru takes his disciple nephew as his son-in-law, by
giving his daughter as a bride.
Let us now examine the guru-ishya relationship. In both Sinzai and Jalalnagar, the
guru was primarily the father or grandfather, and secondly the brother of the father or
grandfather. In other words, the disciple was a son, a grandson or a nephew. So it is clear
that the musical knowledge of the gharn was kept within the patrilineal family. Irfan
Khan of Sinzai, however, did not tie a ganda (thread) with his father. Instead he tied a
ganda with his uncle Ilyas Khan.32) It seems that beside the blood relationship of father and
son or grandfather and grandson, the guru-ishya relationship by tying a ganda was quite
popular.
Next, let us look at the guru-ishya relationship between the Sinzai group and the
disciple line of the Jalalnagar group within Shahjahanpur (Table 7). Akhtar Khan of disciple
line of Jalalnagar learnt sitr from his mothers two elder brothers, Umar Khan and Ilyas

Table 6 Marriage relationship between Sinzai and Jalalnagar (disciple line)

Jalalnagar Sinzai

Ga us Muha m ma d S ha h Kha n Guru Moha mma d S ha h K ha n

Ha s a n Kha n Enaye t Ali K h a n

Fida Hussain Kha n S ha fa ye t Ali K ha n

disciple

Taj Mohammad Khan Musharraf Hussain Khan Sakhawat Hussain Khan

adopted

Akhatar Khan Umar Khan Ilyas Khan

marriage relation Aqueer Khan Shahid Khan Irfan KhanIdris Khan
(b. 1966) (b. 1940) (b. 1954) (b. 1955)
188 Masakazu Tamori

Table 7 Marriage relationship and guru-shisya relathionship in Shahjahanpur Ghrn

Jalalnagar 
Sinzai

G a us Moha mm a d S ha h Kha n G uru Moha mm a d S ha h Kha n

Hasan Kha n E naye t Al i Kha n

Fida Hussain Kha n S ha fa ye t Kha n

disciple

Taj Mohammad Khan Musharraf Hussain Khan Sakhawat Hussain Khan

Akhtar Khan Umar Khan Ilyas Khan

flow of woman
Aqueer Khan Shahid Khan Irfan KhanIdris Khan
directions of teaching
(b. 1966) (b. 1940) (b. 1954) (b. 1955)

Khan of Sinzai, after the death of his adopted father and guru Musharraf Hussain. Aqueer
Khan, the son of Akthar Khan, also learnt sitr from Ilyas Khan. Hence Sinzai (WG)
became the guru line of Jalalnagar (WT).
If we consider the two groups of Sinzai and Jalalnagar as a whole, we find that there is
a correlation between the direction of brides going from one family to another and the
musical property being gifted. In this case, the brides and the musical property go from
Sinzai to Jalalnagar.

Lucknow Gharn
As far as it is known, there were also two groups in the Lucknow gharn: Bagrasi
and Dholpur. According to the oral tradition of the Bagrasi group, their ancestor Madar
Khan (1704-1752) or his son Gul Khan (1728-1779) came from Afghanistan to North India
(Tables 3 and 4). As described above, the Afghan families who migrated to India were
either traders or performed odd jobs for the military. Niyamatullah Khan (1809-1911), who
himself was a horse trader, started learning sarod from Basat Khan of Seniy and became
the founder of the Lucknow gharn. The Bagrasi group is therefore deemed to be the
lineage (khndn) of khalfa.33) On the other hand Ghulam Sabir, a descendant of Dholpur,
says that they were related to Bagrasi through female connections (silsila chalt rah).
He does not remember clearly, however, whether or not his great-grandfather Karam Khan
(1787-1850) and Niyamatullah Khans father were brothers.34)
Niyamatullah Khan of Bagrasi married twice.35) Karamatullah was born from his first
wife and Asadullah from his second. Karamatullah married thrice. His first wife was from
the Dholpur group (M1), and his second was from a Sayyad family which was in charge of
a mosque in Delhi. The third wife of Karamatullah Khan was a female musician from
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 189

Allahabad (the marriage was performed in nikah style). Ishtiyaque Ahmad (1919-1967),
who was the son of the second wife, married the daughter of Rafiqullah (1865-1970) from
the Dholpur group (M2). Their son Mukhtar Ahmad (1941-1994) took the daughter of his
mothers younger sister as his bride (M3).
This is how the Bagrasi group and Dholpur group were related to each other through
marriage for at least three successive generations (Table 8). These marriages were
matrilateral cross-cousin marriage (M2) and matrilateral parallel-cousin marriage (M3). If
the Bagrasi and Dholpur groups both had the same ancestor (Aqueer Khan n.d.;
Mukhopadhyay 1977; Miner 1993: 140-1), then M1, M2 and M3 are secondary patrilateral
parallel-cousin marriages (cf. Murphy and Kasden 1959). The important factor here is that
the girls from the Dholpur group (ishya lineage) moved to the Bagrasi group (guru
lineage). In other words, the WG is the disciple line and the WT is the master line.
Let us examine the guru-ishya relationship. Rafiqullah (harmonium) and Shafiqullah
(sitr), brothers from the Dholpur group, learnt rga music from Karamatullah of Bagrasi.
This means that the direction in which brides went from one family to another was opposite
to the direction in which musical property flowed (Table 9). On the other hand, Ishtiaque
Ahmad who lost his father during his childhood, learnt music from his maternal uncle
Rafiqullah, who was the disciple of his own father, Karamatullah.
Now, where did the Dholpur group get the brides from? According to Ghulam Sabir,
the family of his mother was the sarodiy of Malihabad, which is situated between
Lucknow and Shahjahanpur.36) Ghulam Sabirs wife says, My husbands family is a
khndni sarodiy, whereas my family is Mrs gharn, specializing in harmonium and
tabla.37) A khndni sarodiy means a soloist from a sarod gharn and Mrs means an
accompanist. In light of this, we can presume that there were more than the four famous

Table 8 Marriage relationship in Lucknow Gharn

Bagrasi Dholpur
Madar Khan
Marriage relation

Gul Khan

Haqda d Kha n Ka ra m Kha n

Niya ma t ulla h Kha n Kifaye t Kha n

M1
Asadullah khan Karamatullah Khan  Rafiqullah Khan Shafiqullah Khan

M2
Waliullah Khan Ishtiaque Ahmad Khan

M3
Nur ulla h Kha n Mukht a r Ah mad Kha n Ghulam Sabir
 190 Masakazu Tamori

Table 9 Marriage relationship and Guru-shisya relationship in Lucknow Sarod Gharn

Bagrasi Dholpur

Ma da r Kha n f low of woman

direction of teaching

Gul Khan

Ha qda d Kha n Ka ra m Kha n

Niya ma t ulla h Kha n Kifa ye t Kha n

Asadullah Khan Niyamatullah Khan Rafiqullah Khan Shafiqullah Khan

Waliullah Khan Ishtiaque Ahmad Khan

Nu r ullah Khan Mukhut a r Ahmad Kha n Ghula m Sabir

sarod gharns mentioned earlier.

The Seniys in the center were surrounded by soloist (Kalwant) gharns who
obtained their knowledge from Seniys. Then on the periphery were the accompanist
(Mrs) gharns who were related to the soloist gharns through marriage or guru-
ishya relationships, which at times were formal or informal. In other words, Seniys
formed a nucleus surrounded by different gharns, which in turn were surrounded by
Mrss and obscure gharns.38)

Relationship between Shahjahanpur and Lucknow Gharns

Although Shahjahanpur and Lucknow are two different gharns, the descendants of
both claim that they are in fact one gharn (see, for example, Irfan Muhammad Khan 1991:
43; Misra 1985: 34; Miner 1993: 140-141). In their introductory pamphlets, they include the
names of musicians of each others lineage. The reason is that Niyamatullah Khan, founder
of the Lucknow gharn, and Enayet Ali Khan, the founder of the Shahjahanpur gharn
became intimate friends, after which Niyamatullahs daughter married Enayet Alis son,
Shafayet Ali Khan. Shafayet Alis son, Sakhawat Hussain, married the daughter of
Asadullah Khan, who was the son of Niyamatullah Khan. At the same time, the brother of
Sakhawat Hussain married the sister of Sakhawat Hussains wife.39) As a result of these
matrilateral cross-cousin marriages, the girls of Lucknow went to Shahjahanpur (Table 10).
The guru-ishya relationship between Lucknow (L) and Shahjahanpur (S) is as
follows. Looking at the flow of tracking, i.e. from Niyamatullah (L) to Shafayet Ali (S),
from Karamatullah and Asadullah (L) to Sakhawat Hussain (S), one finds that the Lucknow
gharn is the guru of the Shahjahanpur gharn. In other words, musical property was
gifted to Shahjahanpur by Lucknow (Table 11).
 The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 191

Table 10 Marriage relationship between Shahjahanpur and Lucknow Gharn

Shahjahanpur Gharn  Lucknow Sarod Gharn

Guru Moha mma d S ha h Kha n Ha qda d Kha n

Ena ye t Ali Kha n Niya ma t ulla h Kha n

S hafaye t Kha n As a dulla h kha n Ka ramatullah Khan

Sakhawat Hussasin Khan Waliullah Khan

Uma r Kha n Ilya s Kha n Isht iaque Ahmad Khan

Shahid Khan Irfan Khan Idris Khan Nurullah Khan Mukhtar Khan Gulfam Khan
(b.1940) (b.1954) (b.1955) (b.1938) 1941-1994) (b. 1956)

marriage relation
: non-musician

Table 11 Marriage relationship and Guru-shisya Relationship between Shahjahanpur and Lucknow

Shahjahanpur Gharn (Sinzai)

 Lucknow Sarod Gharn (Bagrasi)

Guru Mohammad Shah Khan Haqdad Khan

Enayet Ali Khan Niyamatyllah Khan

Shafayet Khan Asadullah Khan Karamatullah Khan

Sakahwat Hussain Khan

Umar Khan Ilyas Khan Ishtiaque Ahmad Khan

Shahid Khan Irfan Khan Idris Khan Nurullah Khan Mukhtar Khan Gulfam Khan
b.1940) b.1954) b.1955) b.1938) 1941-1994) (b.1956)

flow of woman
direction of teaching
192 Masakazu Tamori

According to Irfan Mohammad Khan, the music of Lucknow came into Shahjahanpur
through matrilineal cross cousin marriages over two successive generations.40) He further
says that the dowry came from wife-giver to wife-taker in India, a practice that was
contrary to the customs of the Pathans in Afghanistan. Shahjahanpur acquired various kinds
of bandsh from the Lucknow gharn along with the brides; thus, the bandsh were the
main properties of the sarod gharn. According to him, Shahjahanpur musicians used
three fingers (the index, middle and ring fingers) of their left hands to press on the strings
while playing sarod, but after learning bandsh from Lucknow they started using only two
fingers (the index and middle fingers). It seems that in order to master the bandsh, the
musicians of Shahjahanpur gharn had to learn Lucknows fingering and practice methods
at the same time.
Irfan argues that the Pathan custom of mahr changed to the dowry custom in the
following way. According to him, many Hindus who converted to Islam could not do away
with their custom of dowry. This meant that over the course of time the Pathans also
naturally acquired the habit of dowry.

Transformation of Gharn in the Post-formation Period

In the formation period, patrilateral parallel-cousin marriages were frequently seen
within the gharns itself, and matrilateral cross-cousin marriage took place between
different gharns. The same phenomenon was seen in the Lucknow and Shahjahanpur
gharns as well. After Independence, however, such marriages did not take place (after the
partition of India and Pakistan). The contemporary descendants of gharns started taking
their brides from families of non-musicians; polygamy is also rarely practiced now. The
changes in the marriage relationship and birdar influenced the development of gharns
and the training of successors. This was also related to social structures and the politico-
economical environment: for example, the transformation of the patron-client relationship,
the development of mass media, and the emergence of music school education. This
especially affected their economic life. It was a time when, the majority of professional
musicians converted from Islam to Hinduism and Indian classical music started being
identified as the national music of India.
If we take the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharn as an example, its descendants do not
necessarily depend on music to earn their livelihood. Shahid Khan has one son and three
daughters, but none of them are musicians.41) The children of Nurullah Khan42) and Ghulam
Sabir43) gave up pursuing music half way. Whatever their talents or preferences, it could
have been a risky proposition for them to pursue only music without attending school.
The earlier musicians could concentrate solely on their music as they were blessed
with patrons who would provide them with economic support.44) A musician of considerable
standard would take over the position of his father or brother, and with the support of his
family network he would also acquire a new patron. The patrons of today, however, are the
unspecified majority who sit in a big hall and watch the musician performing on the stage.
Apart from his own particular gharn, the success of a musician does not depend on a sole
patron, but on the art of attracting a general audience. He has both to bring out the specific
techniques of his gharn along with his personal skills of improvisation, and also to
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 193

arrange his music according to the taste of the audience. Many of the musicians who make
a living from their concerts and recordings have assimilated new styles such as gayaki-ang
(vocal style) and sawl-jawb (rhythmical competition/dialogue) with tabla in their music.
Such new styles of performance in foreign countries by prominent Indian musicians have
also influenced the classical instrumental music of India.
Apart from these performing musicians described above, the most stable profession for
a musician is either to work with radio/TV stations or to become a teacher at a music
school.45) In order to become a music teacher in a college or university, one has to have high
qualifications. The Muslim hereditary musicians only practiced music without going to
school for an education. Most of them also had no knowledge or interest in the theory of
music. The sons and daughters of upper-caste Hindus learnt classical music in music
school, from a teacher rather than following the guru-ishya relationship, because they
regarded classical music as their cultural education. The reason that the majority of music
teachers today are Hindu is related to these factors.
Irfan Khan, who is one of the main sources of information for this paper, is the only
musician of the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharn with a masters degree in music. As he
has no male child, he has decided to teach sitr and sarod to his two young daughters.46)
Until recently, it was customarily forbidden to teach music to girls in the family (see Tamori
2000).47) It was the practice in gharns that only the male children would carry on the art
of music, but this has diminished over the last 50 years. As a result, some renowned female
sarod players have emerged on the scene.48)
We may have seen the end of the era in which a female child of a gharn could not
become a musician herself, but served only as a medium to transfer musical property either
inside or outside the gharn in the form of dowry.49) As far as I know, the son of Gulfam
Ahmad of the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharn is the only one of the younger generation
who continues practicing sarod to become a professional musician.

Conclusion
The ancestors of the Lucknow and Shahjahanpur gharns came from Afghanistan in the
18th century and settled in North India. Their main income was from jgrs, horse breeding
and trading. One of them started learning Indian classical music directly from a Seniy in
the 19th century. He accumulated a part of the musical knowledge of rga and started
performing in the courts of Rajas and Nawabs.
He eventually became the founder of his own gharn. It may be said that the secret
musical knowledge that was transmitted successively for three generations ultimately
became an intangible asset that took the place of their physical property such as land and
horses. In this paper I have described the correlation between the marriage relationship and
guru-ishya relationship connected with the management and transmission of musical
property.
The main features of the marriage system in Pathan families of East Afghanistan and
West Pakistan were clan endogamy (marriage within clan or lineage), patrilateral parallel-
cousin marriage and hypergamy as an important index of political status and in making
194 Masakazu Tamori

political alliances (Ahmed 1980: 243). This type of marriage system had two features. First,
they could keep their land within their own family/lineage/clan. Second, even within groups
descended from the same father, they were of unequal social status, which affected or
regulated the price of mahr.
The system of dowry developed in Hindu society due to hypergamy. In the upper
classes of Hindu society in North India, caste endogamy, clan (gtra) exogamy and
hypergamy were observed. The WT has a higher social status in society than the WG. As a
result the lower-status WG has to offer dowry to the higher-status WT (cf. Srinivas 1989). It
is said that Indian Muslims also have a tendency toward hypergamy and gift-exchange
similar to offering dowry. In marriages, musical property was also exchanged in the same
way as dowry. This principle did not apply, however, if the disciple was a WT and the guru
is a WG.
As Neuman describes, it seems that the core families of gharns were almost always
Muslim and cousin marriage system played a strategic role in keeping musical property
strictly within the family. As I pointed out at the beginning of this paper, however, it does
not reveal how the gharns were formed through a combination of marriage and guru-
ishya relationships, and also how their musical property was maintained and transmitted.
In this paper, I have tried to show that marriages within the same gharn had a
tendency toward patrilateral parallel-cousin marriage during the formation period of sarod
gharns, whereas marriages between two different gharns were often in the form of
matrilateral cross-cousin marriage.
Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage between two different gharns is a marriage
system that is not an annexation of different groups but which makes possible a much wider
social union. This kind of wider social union is not found in the male-centered genealogical
system. In this case, the girls of one family are wedded to another fixed family and hence
the musical property also travels in a similar direction, i.e. from the girls to the boys
family (Table 12). This is how the transmission of musical property became possible
through the correlation between cross-cousin marriage and guru-ishya paramapar.
These systems of patrilateral parallel-cousin marriage and matrilateral cross-cousin
marriage are no longer practiced in the post-formation period (after the India-Pakistan
partition). This change in the marriage system influenced the guru-ishya relationship in a
positive manner, as the guru started imparting secret musical knowledge to his disciple
more liberally. As a result, musical property that until then had been secretly guarded within
the lineage became available to a deserving disciple.
This transformation of gharns from the formation to the post-formation period is
also related to the wider socio-historical backdrop, including the following factors.
1) The change in patron-client relationship, i.e. change in audience from royal courts to
general public.
2) The emergence of All India Music Conferences, where musicians of different gharns
performed on the same platform.
3) The development of mass media, such as radio, TV and recordings.
4) The growth and expansion of the music school education system i.e. establishment of
departments of music in various colleges, universities and independent schools of music.
 The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 195

Table 12 Corrilation between marriage relationship and Guru-shisya relathinship

Shahjahanpur Gharn Lucknow Sarod Gharn (Malihabad)
Jalalnagar Sinzai Bagrasi Dholpur

flow of woman
direction of teaching

These departments of music started teaching the theory of music, including the history of
Indian music, and also started notating various bandsh in the Indian system as well as
simple patterns of improvisation and variation.
All these features were interlinked, meaning that the secret techniques and knowledge
that had been guarded for generations now became available to music students and
connoisseurs. Furthermore, the knowledge and skills of one gharn could easily be
acquired by other gharns.
The globalization of Hindustani music became possible as some renowned musicians
started performing abroad. This globalization has influenced both the socio-economic
position of gharnedr musicians and their identity. Future research on the change of
musical community should be carried out.50) I would also like to explore the relationships
between changes in the socio-economic environment and the strategies adopted by
musicians.

Acknowledgments
The present paper contains part of the results of my fieldwork in India (1998-99), carried out with the
financial support of the Japan Science Foundation. I offer my sincere thanks to Dr. Manjushree
Chauhan (Center of Japanese Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) for extending help
during my research since 1994. I offer my heartfelt gratitude to my guru in sarod, Prof. Klyan
Mukherhea, and all the other musicians whom I interviewed and consulted in India, especially Irfan
Muhammad Khan and Gulfam Ahmad Khan.
196 Masakazu Tamori

Notes
1) The word gharn has evolved from the Sanskrit word griha (home, family), from which the
Hindi word ghar (home, family) seems to have been derived (cf. Dhar 1989: 6).
2) This fretless, waisted instrument made out a single block of wood, 1.2-1.5m in length is similar to
the Afghan rabb (see Plate 1). The round end (20-30 cm in diameter) is covered with parchment,
at the center of which is the bridge. From the bridge end the instrument tapers toward the neck.
The middle portion of the hollow body is covered with a highly polished metal sheet to form the
fingerboard. Six to eight playing strings (four main strings) are supported by nine to twelve
sympathetic strings, all of metal (cf. Ranade 1990: 115). For more information on sarod, see
Tamori (1995).
3) See Jairazbhoy (1995 [1971]) for an analysis of Hindustani music and rga.
4) I owe the concept of community of practice to Lave and Wenger [1991], who propose that
learning is a process of participation in communities of practice participation that is at first
legitimately peripheral but that increases gradually in engagement and complexity.
5) For a discussion on the definition of gharn and its applicable category, see Deshpande (1973),
Kippen (1988: 63-85), Neuman (1978; 1990: 145-67), Owens (1983), and Tamori (1997).
6) See Roy Choudhry (n.d.) and Dhar (1989) on Seniy and Seni gharn.
7) Contradictory viewpoints have been advanced regarding the birth year of Tansen; various dates
have been put forward that range between 1492 and 1531, a span of nearly four decades (Dhar
1989: 19).
8) See Shrivastava (1980) and Prajnanananda (1981, chapter 11) on the history of dhrupad.
9) Washifuddin Dagar (b. 1967), who belongs to one of the oldest families of dhrupad, commented:
We learn or teach bandsh in the last step (personal communication, January 2003, Delhi).
10) See Prajnanananda (1981: chapter 11) and Deshpande (1973) on the khyl.
11) Surbahr is a larger, lower-pitched version of the sitr. It is mainly employed for the slow-tempo
musical elaborations known as lp. Surringr is a larger, bass version of the sarod. It is mainly
employed for the middle-tempo musical elaborations known as lp-jhor.
12) For general features of dowry in South Asia, see Tambiah (1973).
13) For discussions of caste among Indian Muslims, see Ansari (1960), Ahmad (1973, 1976), and
Faridi and Siddiq (1992).
14) See Alavi (1972: 26) for discussion of Muslim caste and birdar: It creates a social
organization which is locally cohesive, but spatially fragmented. All birdars in the endogamous
system have zt names. Such names are used locally, as surnames, to identify the birdars, but
the existence of zt names dose not signify the existence of caste in the contemporary. See also
Ahmad (1973: 159-65; 1976: 321).
15) See Ahmad (1976: 326) on birdar and bh-bnd: The term birdar is usually employed for
those castes which have occupational name and generally possess a formal caste organization in
the form of a caste panchyat (council). On the other hand, the term bh-bnd is normally used
to designate the households belonging to castes which lack a formal caste organization centering
round a caste panchyat and whose names indicate social origin rather than occupation.
Furthermore, the terms bh-bnd or birdar and zt are employed differently. The former is
used by a person while referring to the households belonging to his own caste. While referring to
the households belonging to a caste other than his own, he uses the term zt.
The Transformation of Sarod Gharn 197

16) Gharns that have no living musician-successor were excluded from this paper. For example,
there is no consideration of the Rampur sarod gharn to which Chunnu Khan and his cousin
Ahmad Ali Khan, who was the guru of Allauddhin Khan of the Maihar gharn, belonged.
17) Regarding the structure of Muslim society, Bhatty (1973: 92) states, The entire Muslim society
is divided into two major sections, the Ashrafs and the non- Ashrafs. The Ashraf castes are: the
Sayyads, the Sheikhs, The Mughals, and the Pathans. All four castes claim higher status than non-
Ashraf castes by virtue of their foreign descent. The non- Ashraf castes are all alleged to be
converts from Hinduism. For the caste of Muslim musicians and the problems of its
categorization, see Tamori (2000).
18) See Ahmed (1980) on the clans and lineages of Pathans, including the Bangash clan in Pakistan.
19) I shall use the term Pathan to refer to those who live in India and speak Urdu/Hindu instead of the
Pukhtun or Pashtun in Afghanistan and North-west Pakistan, though the word Pathan does not
exist among Pukhto speakers and the Pukhtuns; it is an Anglo-Indian corruption.
20) This document is a Hindi manuscript (no page number) that was written by Aqueer Khan, who
heard from his father and relatives.
21) Rose (1911: 107) offered a comment on mrss: The mrs or dum of Dera Ghazi Khan (North
Pakistan) used to keep horse-stallions for breeding and he still does in the Bozdar hills.
22) The word Rohilla is of Pathan origin, meaning hillman.
23) It may be the same as the person in parentheses.
24) See also Chaubey (1958a: 23) on the relation between Ghulam Ali and Farrukhabad.
25) About the origin of this gharn, Amjad Ali Khan and Malhotra (1973: 18) state, When the
mutiny of Lucknow took place, Ghulam Ali Khan moved northwestwards to yet another state,
that of the Sindias of Gwalior and was soon appointed court musician to the Maharaja. The
Maharaja of Gwalior gave Ghulam Ali Khan a house to live in one of the suburbs called Jivaji
Ganji, which house we inherited over the years and still possess.
26) For more information on Ghulam Ali and his gharn, see Chaubey (1958a), Imam (1959), Miner
(1997: 123-4, 135, 140), and Roy Chowdhury (1929: 48-9).
27) Umar Khan (1978) gave his name as Insaf Khan, while his son Irfan Mohammad Khan (1991)
identified him as Hasan Khan.
28) The guru of Yusuf Ali Khan belonged to the Kalpi gharn, a direct disciple-line of Bahadur
Khan Seniy.
29) Irfan Mohammad Khan, interview, Calcutta, July, 1998.
30) A self-introduction from a pamphlet by Aqueer Khan.
31) Irfan Mohammad Khan, interview, Calcutta, July, 1998.
32) Irfan Mohammad Khan, interview, Calcutta, July, 1999.
33) See Kippen (1988: 53) on khalfa: The highest social rank is accorded the head of the gharn,
known as the khalfa, who will normally be the oldest performing authority on the gharns
repertoire and style. See also Neuman (1990: 263, n8).
34) Ghulam Sabir, interview, New Delhi, January 1999.
35) These comments based on an interview with Gulfam Ahmad Khan, Delhi, August 1998.
36) Ghulam Sabir, interview, New Delhi, January 1999.
37) Wife of Ghulam Sabir, interview, UP, December 1998.
38) In the Imperial Census, srodiys were assigned to the same category as mrss (e.g. Blunt 1969:
198 Masakazu Tamori

205; Rose 1911: 118-9). For the problem of categorization and the treatment of Muslims, see Fujii
(1993) and Tamori (2000).
39) However, Sakhawats brother was not a musician.
40) These comments are based on an interview with Irfan Mohammad Khan, Calcutta, December
1997.
41) Shahid Khan, interview, Lucknow, August 1997.
42) Nurullah Khan, interview, Calcutta, December 1998.
43) Ghulam Sabir, interview, New Delhi, January 1999.
44) For more information on the relationship between kingship and musician (patron-client
relationship), see Erdman (1978, 1985).
45) See Tamori (2001) for an analysis of the social world of Indian musicians and its changes after
Independence.
46) Irfan Mohammad Khan, interview, Calcutta, December 1997.
47) An exception was the case of Annapuruna Devi, who was taught music (surbahr) by her father
Allauddin Khan.
48) Famous female sarod players include Sharan Rani, Shri Gangli, and Zarin Dharwala.
49) This does not deny the possibility of future inter-marriage.
50) I owe this insight to William Hanks who states, the larger community of practitioners reproduces
itself through the formation of apprentices, yet it would presumably be transformed as well
(1991: 16).

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