Kalpi Gharana

कालपी घराना

A Seniya offshoot of dhrupad and been, named after a Yamuna town

Vocal Gharana Kalpi, Uttar Pradesh

The Kalpi gharana, which Susheela Misra calls the Kalpiwala gharana, is a school of dhrupad in Hindustani classical music, named after the town of Kalpi in Uttar Pradesh and documented from the 19th century. Misra describes it as an offshoot of the Seniya gharana that stressed been (veena) playing as well as dhrupad training.

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Origins & History

Kalpi, the largest and oldest township in Jalaun district, stands on the bank of the Yamuna. In Susheela Misra's account, the gharana begins with Bhadah Khan. He was a 19th-century musician from Jaipur who wandered for years before settling in Kalpi under the protection of the Rana of Kalpi, himself a dhrupad singer and vainik, a been player. The line took the town's name because his son Alam Khan was born there.

Misra also traces the gharana through Azam Khan Kalpiwale, a Seniya musician from the line of Nirmol Shah, a vainik of Jaipur. Azam Khan became a court musician under the Rana of Khajurgaon, and his sons Abdul Ghani Khan and Murawwat Khan were born there. Both made names as instrumentalists and dhrupad singers, and for many years they served the Raja of Chandapur.

Two other writers record Kalpi musicians. E. S. Perera places the dhrupad singer Taj Khan in the Kalpi tradition, and Ramesh Pokharel describes Taj Khan singing dhrupad and dhamar in Nepal under Bir Shamsher, the Rana prime minister. Sumitra Ranganathan documents a hereditary line she calls the Ustads of Kalpi, who settled at Bettiah in the early 19th century. The three accounts name different families.

"this was an offshoot of the Seniya Gharana which laid stress on Beenkari (Veena-playing) as well as on Dhrupad-training"

— Susheela Misra

Great Masters of Hindustani Music (Hem Publishers, 1981), pp. 118-119

Historical Timeline

Early 19th century

The Ustads of Kalpi settle in Bettiah

The families Sumitra Ranganathan calls the Ustads of Kalpi settle in Bettiah, where they become one of the court's main dhrupad lineages outside the Mullick families.
19th century

Bhadah Khan settles in Kalpi

In Susheela Misra's account Bhadah Khan, a musician from Jaipur, settles in Kalpi under the Rana of Kalpi. His son Alam Khan's birth there gives the line its name.
1887

Yusuf Ali Khan is born

Yusuf Ali Khan is born in Lucknow. He later learns veena and dhrupad from Azam Khan Kalpiwale and his sons before turning to the sitar.
1950s-1960s

Bettiah gatherings

Lal Khan and Nathan Khan of the Naya Tola families sing dhrupad, khayal and ghazal at Bettiah gatherings that are later recalled in oral history.
1962

Death of Yusuf Ali Khan

Yusuf Ali Khan dies on 14 October 1962. Susheela Misra's 1981 account of the Kalpiwala line draws on her interview with him.
1980

Kale Khan's bani described

Bharat Vyas's Dhrupad Samiksha, published by the Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Akademi, gives a brief description of Kale Khan's gaurhar bani practice.
2010

The Bettiah families have left dhrupad

Ranganathan's fieldwork finds that the families of the Ustads of Kalpi have given up dhrupad. Their descendants still live in Naya Tola, Bettiah, on ancestral land.

Lineage & Legacy

The guru-shishya tradition passed down through generations

In Misra's account the Kalpi line passed from father to son and from teacher to adopted pupil. Azam Khan taught his sons, and Abdul Ghani Khan adopted Yusuf Ali Khan at 13 and trained him in veena and dhrupad before moving him to the sitar. At Bettiah the Ustads of Kalpi were hereditary families, and Ranganathan writes that they appear to have come from Seniya teaching lines. Their descendants still live in the town's Naya Tola neighbourhood.

Misra's Kalpiwala line

Bhadah Khan

19th century

Musician from Jaipur who settled in Kalpi

In Misra's account he left Jaipur, wandered for years and settled in Kalpi under the Rana of Kalpi. The line took the town's name from his son's birth there.

Alam Khan

Son of Bhadah Khan

Born in Kalpi. Misra writes that because of his birth there the family's musical lineage came to be known as the Kalpiwala gharana.

Azam Khan Kalpiwale

Court musician at Khajurgaon

A musician of the Seniya gharana from the line of Nirmol Shah, a vainik of Jaipur. He served the Rana of Khajurgaon and taught veena and dhrupad.
Guru-Shishya Tradition

Azam Khan's sons and pupils

Abdul Ghani Khan

Son of Azam Khan

Born at Khajurgaon, he became known as an instrumentalist and a dhrupad singer, and served the Raja of Chandapur for many years. He adopted and taught Yusuf Ali Khan.

Murawwat Khan

Son of Azam Khan

Brother of Abdul Ghani Khan and his partner at the Chandapur court. After the Raja's death the brothers gave up performing and sent their pupil in their place.

Yusuf Ali Khan

1887-1962

Sitar player trained in the line

Born in Lucknow in 1887, he learned veena and dhrupad from Azam Khan and both his sons, then moved to the sitar on his guru's advice.
Guru-Shishya Tradition

Perera's Kalpi tradition

Taj Khan

Dhrupad and dhamar singer

E. S. Perera places him in the Kalpi tradition. Ramesh Pokharel records him singing in Nepal under Bir Shamsher and calls him a descendant of Tansen.
Guru-Shishya Tradition

The Ustads of Kalpi at Bettiah

Kale Khan

Late 19th to mid 20th century

Singer of the Ustads of Kalpi

A hereditary musician of the Kalpi families at Bettiah, known for his command of all four dhrupad banis. He lived for a time with the Muzaffarpur patron Uma Shankar (Baccha) Babu.

Lal Khan and Nathan Khan

1950s-1960s

Singers of the Naya Tola families

Remembered at Bettiah gatherings of the 1950s and 1960s, where they sang dhrupad, khayal, ghazal and other forms, in the oral history Ranganathan collected.

Zakir Hussain of Patna

Music director at All India Radio, Patna

Of the Kalpi family, he became a music director and composer at All India Radio in Patna. He is not the tabla player of the same name.

The gharana system is rooted in the guru-shishya (teacher-disciple) tradition, where musical knowledge and style are passed down through direct apprenticeship over three or more generations.

Key exponents

  • Bhadah Khan, 19th-century musician from Jaipur who settled in Kalpi
  • Azam Khan Kalpiwale, Seniya musician and court musician at Khajurgaon
  • Abdul Ghani Khan, son of Azam Khan, court musician at Chandapur
  • Murawwat Khan, son of Azam Khan, court musician at Chandapur
  • Yusuf Ali Khan, 1887-1962, Lucknow sitar player trained in the line
  • Taj Khan, dhrupad and dhamar singer in Nepal under Bir Shamsher
  • Kale Khan, singer of the Ustads of Kalpi at Bettiah
  • Zakir Hussain of Patna, music director at All India Radio, Patna

Musical Characteristics

Distinctive style, techniques, and aesthetic philosophy

Overall Style

Misra's Kalpiwala line joined been playing to dhrupad training, and its sons were known both as instrumentalists and as singers. Ranganathan's Ustads of Kalpi sang dhrupad at the Bettiah court and in small soirees, beside khayal, ghazal and thumri. One of them, Kale Khan, was known for all four dhrupad banis. In dhrupad the voice is accompanied by the pakhawaj, the barrel drum.

Been with dhrupad

Misra calls the Kalpiwala gharana an offshoot of the Seniya gharana that stressed been playing as well as dhrupad training. Its musicians were vainiks and singers both.

Dhrupad among other forms

The Bettiah families did not keep to dhrupad alone. They sang mostly at court and in small gatherings, and mixed dhrupad with khayal, ghazal and thumri.

All four banis

Kale Khan of the Bettiah families was known for his command of all four banis, the stylistic streams of dhrupad. Bharat Vyas described his gaurhar bani practice in 1980.

Signature Repertoire

Dhrupad and dhamar are the forms named for Kalpi musicians: Pokharel records Taj Khan singing both, and dhamar is the companion form tied to Holi in the Braj region. Misra's line also taught the veena, and its sons performed as instrumentalists. At Bettiah the repertoire took in khayal, ghazal and thumri. Later descendants of those families composed classical-based popular music for film and radio.

Compare with Similar Gharanas

Understand how Kalpi Gharana differs from other traditions

Select a Gharana to Compare:

Kalpi Gharana
(Current)		 Dagar Gharana
(Comparing)
Type Vocal Vocal
Origin Kalpi, Uttar Pradesh Jaipur
Style Misra's Kalpiwala line joined been playing to dhrupad training, and its sons were known both as instrumentalists and as singers. Ranganathan's Ustads of Kalpi sang dhrupad at the Bettiah court and in small soirees, beside khayal, ghazal and thumri. One of them, Kale Khan, was known for all four dhrupad banis. In dhrupad the voice is accompanied by the pakhawaj, the barrel drum. A Dagar performance centres on a long, slow and meditative alap, the unmetred opening, with close attention to microtonal shading and to the raga's character. A composition with pakhawaj, the barrel drum, follows. The family has long sung in pairs of brothers.
View Dagar Gharana Details

Influence & Legacy

The Kalpi line fed other music through its pupils. Yusuf Ali Khan carried its veena and dhrupad training into his sitar playing in Lucknow, and his father, the instrument maker Bhondu Khan, had trained under Azam Khan. At the Bettiah court the Ustads of Kalpi stood with the Mishras of Benares among the main dhrupad lineages outside the Mullick families. Their descendants turned to film and radio, and Zakir Hussain of the Kalpi family became a music director at All India Radio, Patna.

Sources

  1. Susheela Misra, Great Masters of Hindustani Music (1981)
  2. Sumitra Ranganathan, Dwelling in my Voice, PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley (2015)
  3. Ramesh Pokharel, Classical Music in the Shah and Rana Era: 1768-1951 A.D., SIRJANA (2019)
  4. E. S. Perera, The Origin and Development of Dhrupad and Its Bearing on Instrumental Music (1994), known through secondary citation
  5. District Administration, Jalaun, History of District Jalaun (n.d.)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Kalpi gharana?

The Kalpi gharana is a school of dhrupad named after Kalpi, a town on the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh. Susheela Misra calls it the Kalpiwala gharana, an offshoot of the Seniya gharana that stressed been playing as well as dhrupad. Sumitra Ranganathan documents a related family line, the Ustads of Kalpi, at the Bettiah court.

Who founded the Kalpi gharana?

Susheela Misra traces the Kalpi gharana to Bhadah Khan, a 19th-century musician from Jaipur who settled in Kalpi under the Rana of Kalpi. Because his son Alam Khan was born in Kalpi, the line came to bear the town's name. Misra then follows it through Azam Khan Kalpiwale, a Seniya musician, and his sons.

Which musicians belong to the Kalpi gharana today?

Sumitra Ranganathan found in her 2010 fieldwork that the families of the Ustads of Kalpi had given up dhrupad. Their descendants still live in Naya Tola, Bettiah. The latest named musicians of the line are Lal Khan and Nathan Khan, remembered from Bettiah gatherings of the 1950s and 1960s, and Zakir Hussain of All India Radio, Patna.

How does the Kalpi gharana differ from the Dagar gharana of dhrupad?

The Dagar gharana is one family that sings the Dagar vani with a long, slow alap, while the Kalpi gharana is known through separate Kalpi families. Misra describes a Seniya offshoot that joined been playing to dhrupad, and Ranganathan describes Bettiah singers who added khayal, ghazal and thumri.

When did the Kalpi gharana begin?

The Kalpi gharana goes back to the 19th century. Susheela Misra places Bhadah Khan's settlement in Kalpi in that century, and Sumitra Ranganathan has the Ustads of Kalpi settling at Bettiah early in it.

Who are the known singers of the Kalpi gharana?

Known Kalpi musicians include Azam Khan Kalpiwale and his sons Abdul Ghani Khan and Murawwat Khan, instrumentalists and dhrupad singers in Susheela Misra's account. E. S. Perera places the dhrupad singer Taj Khan in the Kalpi tradition. At Bettiah, Kale Khan was known for his command of all four dhrupad banis.

Where is Kalpi, and is the gharana linked to the town?

Kalpi is the largest and oldest township in Jalaun district, Uttar Pradesh, on the bank of the Yamuna. Susheela Misra links the gharana to the town: Bhadah Khan settled there under the Rana of Kalpi, and his son Alam Khan's birth in Kalpi gave the line its name.

Is the Kalpi gharana the same as the Kalpiwala gharana?

Yes. Kalpiwala gharana is Susheela Misra's name for the line in her Great Masters of Hindustani Music (1981). For the musicians they describe, Sumitra Ranganathan writes of the Ustads of Kalpi at Bettiah, and E. S. Perera of the Kalpi tradition.

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