The Different Gharanas of Sitar
Pandit Bhabanishankar Dasgupta
The sitar is one of the most popular instruments in north Indian (Hindustani) music. Northern India has produced many eminent musicians who have been playing this instrument for several decades. Many of them are directly or indiractly related to the Senia Gharana.
In the book entitled “Bharatiya Sangeet Kosh” by the well-known sitar player Bimala Kanta Roychowdhury 15 here is a detailed account of the Senia Gharana. From this account we come to know that Masid Khan,the son of Rairas Khan was the creator of Masidkhani style of sitar playing Sukhsen the elder son of Masid Khan had no children. Bahadur sen, the younger son of Masid Khan also had a son named Sukhsen. Rahim sen and Amrit sen were the son and grandson of sukhsen.
The Senia Gharana (lineage or family) of sitar players ramified into two main branches v.i.z.jaipur and Gwalior.when the descendants of tansen residing in Gwalior went and settled in jaipur they came to be known as the exponents of jaipur Senia Gharana.those who still resided in Gwalior were referred to as the members of Gwalior Senia Gharana. Subsequently this Gharana ramified into many mare branches, in the book entiled “sangeet sabdakosh”by dr bimal roy there are references to numerous / entitle Gharanas or families of sitar players such as jaipur, Gwalior, Saharanpur, Kalpi, Banda, Etwa, Maihar, Beneras, Luckhnow, Darbhanga, D Dhaka„ Mathura, Baroda, Satara, Bombay, Ujain, Indore and Nepal Amir Khan (not the renowned vocalist,but a member of Senia Gharana) resided both in jaipur and Gwalior. Hence his name can be found in both the Gharanas. According to some music-historians Barkatullah and Imdad Hussain were two of his eminent disciples, but afterwards they created two different styles of sitar playing. Asique Ali and his son Mustaque Ali were the disciples of Barkatullah. Since Asique Ali resided in Beneras for a long time many people consider him to be an exponent of Benaras Gharana, but actually he was a member of jaipur Senia Gharana. Among the disciples of Mustaque Ali Khan, the names of Arun Kr Chatterjee, Debabrata Chowdhury, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee (who also learnt from Baba Allauddin Khan of Maihar Gharanaj and Nirmal Guha Thakurda deserve special mention.
Ustad Iimdad Hussain Khan was considered to be an exponent of the school of the eminent veena players Bande Ali and Rajab Ali. Imdad Hussain’s sons Inayat Hussain and Wahid Hussain also became proficient sitar and surbahar players among the disciples of Inayat Hussain Khan it is worthwhile to mention the names of Amiya Kanti Bhattacharyya John Gomez Jitendra Mohan Sengupta, Inanada Kanta Lahiri Chowdhury,Dhrubatara Joshi
Bipin Chandra Das, Bimalakanta Roychowdhury and Kumarbahadur Birendrakishore Roychowdhuiry of Gouripur.Inayat Hussain’s son the legendary sitar maestro Ustad Vilayet Khan did not get an opportunity to receive adequate training from his father (having lost his father at a nearly age). Among the disciples of Ustad Vilayet Khan the names of Kashinath Mukherjee, his younger brother Imrat Hussain, arvind Parekh and Benjamin Gomez are specially worth mentioning.
The Maihar Gharana yet another branch of Senia Gharana was founded by the venerable virtuoso baba Allauddin Khan who was a disciple of the veena wizard Ustad Wazir Khan of Ramopur though a Sarode maestro himself, Baba Allauddin efficiently tutored and trained many well-known sitar players among whom the names of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Nikhiljee’ Ali Ahmed Khan and Indraneel Bhattacharyya deserve special mention.
Bani
Ustad yusuf ali, the famous sitar maestro of luckhnow, was a disciple of the Veena wizard ustad abdul ghani of Kalpi Gharana, among the disciples of Yusuf Ali, Sri Bimal Mukherjee, Illyas Khan and Sasodhar Dutta became prominent figures in the field of classical instrumental music. Bimal Mukherjee also learnt from Ustad Abid Hussain of Jaipur Gharana Sri Ramprasanna Banerjee, Sri Gopeswar Baneriee and Sri Gokul Chandra Nag of Vishnupur Gharana (West Bengal) received their training from Ustad Sajjad Mohammad of Banda Gharana. Among famous sitar player today.
Disciples of Gokul nag his son Pandit Manilal Nag has become a another well-known school of sitar flourished in the district of Darbhanga in Bihar, this was referred to as the Darbhanga Gharana. Pandit Ramgovind Pathak and his son Pandit Balaram Pathak were two prominent exponents of this Gharana nowadays Sahid Parvez, Sujat Khan, Nishat Khan and Irshad Khan have made a great reputation as the exponents of Indore (Imdadkhani) Gharana. Pandit Manilal Nag’s worthy Daughter Mita Nag is one of the finest exponents of Vishnupur Gharana.