The Lucknow gharana is one of the six major schools of North Indian tabla, formed when players of the Delhi gharana settled in Lucknow, a move James Kippen dates to the late 18th century. The other five are Delhi, Ajrara, Farrukhabad, Benares and Punjab. Most sources name Bakshu Khan, also spelt Bakhshu and known as Miyan Bakshu, as founder, and many pair him with a brother, Modhu Khan. James Kippen's study, The Tabla of Lucknow (1988), found weak evidence for that brotherhood, according to DigiTabla. Some Lucknow players, among them the late Afaq Hussain Khan, hold that Modhu Khan reached the city about 50 years after Bakshu Khan. DigiTabla, drawing partly on Gottlieb (1993), places the founders around 1770, an estimate musicians and historians dispute.

Sources credit Lucknow with originating the purab baj, the eastern style, named for the city's position east of Delhi. Farrukhabad and Benares complete the purab group. Lucknow's manner, khula baj or the open style, sets bolder and more resonant strokes against Delhi's two-finger playing at the rim. The Lucknow Observer describes full use of the palm with the ring and little fingers, and calls the style hatheli ka baj, the palm style. DigiTabla cautions that the open and closed labels lack clear definitions, and notes that khula baj also plays closed strokes with force.

The style draws on pakhawaj and kathak, and Lucknow's dancers shaped its fixed compositions, which close on the first beat of the cycle. The repertoire sets gat, tukra, chakradar and paran beside the qaida, a theme with set variations, and the peshkar, both inherited from Delhi. Bakshu Khan's disciple and son-in-law, Haji Vilayat Ali Khan, founded the Farrukhabad gharana, and Benares accounts make Modhu Khan the teacher of their founder, Ram Sahai.

The head of the hereditary line carries the title khalifa, and Abid Hussain Khan, Wajid Hussain Khan and Afaq Hussain Khan bore it. Arpit Saxena ties Abid Hussain's title to a challenge and to his compositions for dance. Swapan Chaudhuri belongs to the gharana through his teacher Santosh Krishna Biswas.

Key exponents

  • Bakshu Khan, founder, active around 1770 by one estimate
  • Modhu Khan, named co-founder in many accounts and teacher of Ram Sahai
  • Abid Hussain Khan, khalifa, kathak accompanist and first professor of tabla at Marris College from 1928 (1867 to 1936)
  • Wajid Hussain Khan, khalifa of the hereditary line
  • Afaq Hussain Khan, khalifa of the hereditary line (1930 to 1990)
  • Swapan Chaudhuri, disciple of Santosh Krishna Biswas, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Padma Shri 2019

Sources

  • James Kippen, The Tabla of Lucknow: A Cultural Analysis of a Musical Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 1988)
  • DigiTabla, The Six Major Gharanas and Baj (Dilli baj and Purab baj)
  • Arpit Saxena, Khaleefa Abid Hussain, The Lucknow Observer (2015)
  • UCLA International Institute, announcement of James Kippen's lecture on the notebooks of Abid Hussain Khan (2008)
  • Swapan Chaudhuri, official biography, and Ali Akbar College of Music, Padma Shri announcement (2019)
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