--- url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-in/gharana/benares-gharana-kathak' title: 'Benares Gharana (Kathak)' author: name: Anonymous updated: '2026-10-17T17:53:17+00:00' type: website summary: "The Banaras gharana (Benares), also called the Janakiprasad gharana (Jankiprasad), is a school of Kathak dance named after Varanasi, where its founder settled in the early nineteenth century by the lineage's own account. Most lists count it with Jaipur and Lucknow among the main Kathak gharanas. It shares a city name with the Benares tabla gharana, a separate tradition. Margaret Walker's 2010 study finds no treatise or travel account naming a dance called Kathak before the 1920s or 1930s, yet she cites an 1832 census of Benares that listed 118 Kathaks as music and dancing masters.Accounts credit Janakiprasad as the founder and trace him to Bikaner in Rajasthan. Natawari, the lineage's own institution, gives no dates for him. Gharana legend says the Maharani of Bikaner noticed him as a boy dancing on a plank floating on water, and Natawari adds that she became his patron. By the same account he moved to Banaras to bring Kathak closer to its devotional roots. A 2023 paper by Jaiswal and Upadhyay names Sukhdev Maharaj as a second founder, while the Natawari genealogy leaves him out.Natawari says the dance of Janakiprasad's day rested on compositions made for tabla and pakhawaj, the barrel drum, and that he created syllables for dance itself, the natwari (natawari) bols. Its examples, such as jhung and cheka, cannot be played on the tabla, and its archive assigns a number of these bols to the later guru Biharilal. Kumudini Lakhia, in a statement Natawari hosts, sets the gharana's bols apart from those of Jaipur and Lucknow. Natawari also credits Janakiprasad with the barakhadi, a series of twelve compositions, and describes the movement as lyrical and smooth-flowing.Three later gurus carried the style across north India: Hanuman Prasad, Biharilal and Gopalji. Gopalji settled in Lahore, and the gharana was at times called the Lahore, Punjab or Gopalji ka gharana. His pupil Ashiq Hussain, a dancer and film actor, moved to Pakistan in 1949 and passed the line to Hazarilal, who revived it on stage. Natawari, the institution of Hazarilal and his pupil and wife Sunayana Hazarilal, names her as the leader of the line today. The second line runs through the family of Sukhdev Maharaj, who taught his daughter Sitara Devi. She also studied with Lucknow masters, and the critic Vijay Shanker sees both schools in her dancing. Scroll.in's obituary named her among the gharana's most vigorous proponents.Key exponentsJanakiprasad, credited founder, early nineteenth century by the gharana's own accountHanuman Prasad, court dancer at Kashmir, Patiala and Bikaner, later a teacher in Delhi (1872 to 1952)Biharilal, court dancer at Indore and teacher of the singer Kesarbai Kerkar (1864 to 1938)Gopalji, guru who carried the style to Lahore (died 1932)Hazarilal, guru who revived the Janakiprasad line (died 1992)Sunayana Hazarilal, leading figure of the Janakiprasad line by Natawari's account, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Kathak 2003Sukhdev Maharaj, head of the second Banaras line, named a co-founder by Jaiswal and Upadhyay (2023)Sitara Devi, dancer, daughter and pupil of Sukhdev Maharaj (1920 to 2014)SourcesMargaret Walker, Revival and Reinvention in India's Kathak Dance, MUSICultures 37 (2010)Jaiswal and Upadhyay, The Banaras Gharana of Kathak Dance: A Study from the Past to Present, ShodhKosh Journal of Visual and Performing Arts (2023)Natawari, history, archive and style pages of the Janakiprasad gharanaVijay Shanker, About Sitara Devi, the Queen of Kathak, Bhavan's Journal (2022)Scroll.in, obituary of Sitara Devi (2014)Sangeet Natak Akademi, awardee profile of Sunayana Hazarilal" image: 'https://kalasudha.com/themes/custom/music_agency/assets/icon/logo.svg' published: true og: site_name: KalaSudha 'image:url': 'https://kalasudha.com/themes/custom/music_agency/assets/icon/logo.svg' 'image:secure_url': 'https://kalasudha.com/themes/custom/music_agency/assets/icon/logo.svg' 'image:type': image/svg+xml 'image:alt': KalaSudha --- ## [Benares Gharana (Kathak) ](/en-in/gharana/benares-gharana-kathak) The **Banaras gharana** (Benares), also called the **Janakiprasad gharana** (Jankiprasad), is a school of [Kathak](/en-in/dance/kathak) dance named after Varanasi, where its founder settled in the early nineteenth century by the lineage's own account. Most lists count it with Jaipur and Lucknow among the main Kathak gharanas. It shares a city name with the [Benares tabla gharana](/en-in/gharana/benares-gharana-tabla), a separate tradition. Margaret Walker's 2010 study finds no treatise or travel account naming a dance called Kathak before the 1920s or 1930s, yet she cites an 1832 census of Benares that listed 118 Kathaks as music and dancing masters. Accounts credit Janakiprasad as the founder and trace him to Bikaner in Rajasthan. Natawari, the lineage's own institution, gives no dates for him. Gharana legend says the Maharani of Bikaner noticed him as a boy dancing on a plank floating on water, and Natawari adds that she became his patron. By the same account he moved to Banaras to bring Kathak closer to its devotional roots. A 2023 paper by Jaiswal and Upadhyay names Sukhdev Maharaj as a second founder, while the Natawari genealogy leaves him out. Natawari says the dance of Janakiprasad's day rested on compositions made for tabla and pakhawaj, the barrel drum, and that he created syllables for dance itself, the **natwari (natawari) bols**. Its examples, such as jhung and cheka, cannot be played on the tabla, and its archive assigns a number of these bols to the later guru Biharilal. Kumudini Lakhia, in a statement Natawari hosts, sets the gharana's bols apart from those of Jaipur and Lucknow. Natawari also credits Janakiprasad with the **barakhadi**, a series of twelve compositions, and describes the movement as lyrical and smooth-flowing. Three later gurus carried the style across north India: Hanuman Prasad, Biharilal and Gopalji. Gopalji settled in Lahore, and the gharana was at times called the Lahore, Punjab or Gopalji ka gharana. His pupil Ashiq Hussain, a dancer and film actor, moved to Pakistan in 1949 and passed the line to Hazarilal, who revived it on stage. Natawari, the institution of Hazarilal and his pupil and wife Sunayana Hazarilal, names her as the leader of the line today. The second line runs through the family of Sukhdev Maharaj, who taught his daughter Sitara Devi. She also studied with Lucknow masters, and the critic Vijay Shanker sees both schools in her dancing. Scroll.in's obituary named her among the gharana's most vigorous proponents. ### Key exponents - Janakiprasad, credited founder, early nineteenth century by the gharana's own account - Hanuman Prasad, court dancer at Kashmir, Patiala and Bikaner, later a teacher in Delhi (1872 to 1952) - Biharilal, court dancer at Indore and teacher of the singer Kesarbai Kerkar (1864 to 1938) - Gopalji, guru who carried the style to Lahore (died 1932) - Hazarilal, guru who revived the Janakiprasad line (died 1992) - Sunayana Hazarilal, leading figure of the Janakiprasad line by Natawari's account, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Kathak 2003 - Sukhdev Maharaj, head of the second Banaras line, named a co-founder by Jaiswal and Upadhyay (2023) - Sitara Devi, dancer, daughter and pupil of Sukhdev Maharaj (1920 to 2014) ### Sources - Margaret Walker, Revival and Reinvention in India's Kathak Dance, MUSICultures 37 (2010) - Jaiswal and Upadhyay, The Banaras Gharana of Kathak Dance: A Study from the Past to Present, ShodhKosh Journal of Visual and Performing Arts (2023) - Natawari, history, archive and style pages of the Janakiprasad gharana - Vijay Shanker, About Sitara Devi, the Queen of Kathak, Bhavan's Journal (2022) - Scroll.in, obituary of Sitara Devi (2014) - Sangeet Natak Akademi, awardee profile of Sunayana Hazarilal [Sign in to follow](/en-in/user/login?flag_anon=follow_term-320&destination=/en-in/markdownify/taxonomy/term/320)