Explore Gharanas

The Banaras gharana, also written Benares and called the Janakiprasad gharana after its credited founder, is a school of Kathak dance named after Varanasi. It is usually listed with Jaipur and Lucknow as one of the main Kathak gharanas. By the lineage's own account, Janakiprasad settled in the city in the early 19th century.

The Banaras gharana of thumri, also written Benares, is the purab ang, the eastern style of Hindustani thumri, centred on Varanasi. It is identified with bol banao, in which the singer draws out the meaning of the words. The style took shape in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Bettiah gharana is a dhrupad tradition of Hindustani vocal music that took shape at the court of the Bettiah Raj, now in West Champaran district, Bihar. Dhrupad families settled at the court in the late 17th century, and its repertoire flowered in the early 19th century under two composer-kings.

The Bishnupur gharana, also written Vishnupur, is a dhrupad school of Hindustani music from Bishnupur in Bankura district, West Bengal, once the capital of the Malla kings. It grew at the Malla court in the 18th century, and Banglapedia calls it the sole gharana of Bengal.

The Bishnupur gharana, also written Vishnupur, is a Hindustani dhrupad school from Bishnupur, the former Malla capital in Bankura district, West Bengal. Its musicians also played instruments, and in the 20th century the Bandyopadhyay family brought the esraj forward as a solo instrument.

The Dagar gharana, also called Dagar vani or Dagarbani, is a hereditary family of dhrupad musicians in Hindustani classical music, mainly singers with a rudra veena branch. Its teaching line begins with Behram Khan, a musician at the Jaipur court in the 19th century.

The Darbhanga gharana is a dhrupad tradition of Hindustani vocal music that grew up at the court of the Darbhanga Raj in north Bihar, in the Mithila region, around the middle of the 18th century. It is also called the Darbhanga-Amta gharana and the Mallick gharana.

The Delhi gharana, also called the Dilli gharana, is a hereditary school of Hindustani khayal singing based in Delhi, documented from the 19th century. It traces a traditional ancestry to Amir Khusrau, and its earliest documented figure is Miyan Achpal, a Delhi court singer.

The Delhi gharana, also called the Dilli gharana, is a school of tabla playing that began in Delhi with Siddhar Khan Dhadhi in the first half of the 18th century. SwarGanga calls it the first and fundamental gharana of tabla, and players of every gharana study its qaidas.

The Dumraon gharana is a dhrupad tradition of the Dubey family, tied to the court of the Dumraon Raj in the town of Dumraon, Buxar district, Bihar. Family accounts date it to the 17th century or earlier.

The Gwalior gharana is a school of khayal singing in Hindustani classical music, named after the princely state of Gwalior. It took shape at the Scindia court in the late 18th and 19th centuries, around Nathan Pir Bakhsh and his grandsons Haddu Khan and Hassu Khan. Bonnie C. Wade calls it the oldest of the khayal gharanas.

The Indore gharana is a 20th-century school of Hindustani khayal singing formed by the vocalist Amir Khan (1912 to 1974) and named after Indore, where he grew up. It is known for ati-vilambit khayal, sung even slower than the usual slow tempo. An older rudra veena line, the Indore Binkar gharana, shares the city's name and is a separate tradition.

The Jaipur gharana is a school of Kathak dance that grew among hereditary families in the princely states of Rajasthan and takes its name from the city of Jaipur. It is known for pure dance, strong footwork and compositions built on the pakhawaj. In dance the school is called the Jaipur gharana alone; Jaipur-Atrauli is the khayal gharana of Alladiya Khan.

The Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, often called the Jaipur gharana, is a school of Hindustani khayal singing that took shape in the late 19th century around Alladiya Khan (1855-1946). His family came from Atrauli, near Aligarh, and settled at Uniara near Jaipur, where he was born. The school is known for compound ragas and dense rhythmic play.

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.

The Kirana gharana is a school of Hindustani khayal singing that took shape in the late 19th century and takes its name from Kairana, also spelled Kirana, the home town of its founding families. Its singers centre on the swara, the single note, and its main centre later moved south to Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The Kunwar Shyam gharana is a khayal tradition of Hindustani classical vocal music built on the compositions of Goswami Lalji Maharaj, known as Kunwar Shyam, a saint-composer of Delhi in the late 19th century. The Jaipurwale family of Bombay carried his music through the 20th century.

The Lucknow gharana is a school of Kathak dance that took its court form in Lucknow in the mid-19th century, under the patronage of Wajid Ali Shah, nawab of Awadh. It is also called the Kalka-Bindadin gharana, after the brothers Bindadin Maharaj and Kalka Prasad. The school is known for bhav, feeling shown through gesture, and for dancing to thumri.

The Lucknow gharana is a school of North Indian tabla that formed when players of the Delhi gharana settled in Lucknow, and James Kippen ties its hereditary family to the city from the late 18th century. It is known for khula baj, an open, resonant style shaped by pakhawaj and kathak dance.

The Lucknow gharana of thumri is the Hindustani vocal tradition of the bandish thumri, a composed song tied to Kathak dance, which Peter Manuel places in mid-19th-century Lucknow. Amrita Sarkhel calls thumri's regional styles ang, and names a Lucknow ang beside Banaras and Patiala.

The Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharana is a hereditary school of Hindustani instrumental music, centred on the sarod, that arose at the royal court of Lucknow in the mid-19th century. Max Katz calls it the Lucknow gharana and names the sarod its family instrument. The line has also produced sitar players.

The Maihar gharana is a 20th-century school of Hindustani instrumental music that formed around Allauddin Khan at Maihar, a small princely state of British India now in Madhya Pradesh. On the sitar its line runs through Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee, and the same teaching produced sarod players, flautists and a surbahar player.

The Mewati gharana is a khayal tradition of Hindustani classical vocal music, rooted in Indore and named after Mewat, the region its founding family left. By the family's own account two brothers founded it: the singer Ghagge Nazir Khan and the rudra veena player Wahid Khan. Other accounts credit Ghagge Nazir Khan alone.

The Patiala gharana is a school of Hindustani vocal music, best known for khayal, named after the princely state of Patiala in Punjab, where it developed under court patronage in the late 19th century. Its Kasur line, carried by Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, is also called the Kasur-Patiala gharana.