The Etawah gharana, also called the Imdadkhani gharana, is a North Indian school of sitar and surbahar playing that formed in the 19th century around Imdad Khan. Its first name comes from Etawah, a town near Agra where the family lived, and its second from Imdad Khan. Artist biographies today join the two, as the Imdadkhani (Etawah) gharana.
Accounts differ on who founded it. Family accounts begin a generation before Imdad Khan, with his father and first teacher, Sahabdad Khan, a vocalist who also played sitar or surbahar. Those accounts tie Sahabdad Khan to Haddu Khan and Hassu Khan of Gwalior and name him the inventor of the surbahar, a claim other accounts dispute. A legend in one account holds that he was born Sahib Singh, a Hindu, and later became a Muslim. Several sources name Imdad Khan the first sitar player to make a gramophone recording, in 1904.
Family and teaching sites describe Imdad Khan's sitar style as resting on khayal singing, a break from the dhrupad-based Senia style that governed instrumental music in his century. That choice grew into the gayaki ang, a way of playing that follows the inflections of the voice. Press obituaries of 2004 credit Vilayat Khan with it. The family site of the Wahid Khan branch credits Enayat Khan with developing it further. The same site says Vilayat Khan refined his father's and uncle's handling of meend (glides) and murki (ornaments).
Imdad Khan taught his sons Enayat Khan on sitar and Wahid Khan on surbahar, and the line divided into two branches. Enayat Khan (1894-1938) moved the family base to Calcutta. His son Vilayat Khan (1928-2004) learned first from him and, after Enayat Khan's early death, from his mother Bashiran Begum, her father, the singer Bande Hassan Khan, and his maternal uncle Zinda Khan. Vilayat Khan's younger brother Imrat Khan (1935-2018) learned from their mother and grandfather and later from their uncle Wahid Khan. The second branch runs through Wahid Khan, who played surbahar in Satyajit Ray's film Jalsaghar (1958). His son Aziz Khan passed the line to his own son, Shahid Parvez. Shahid Parvez trained his son Shakir Khan, who received the Sangeet Natak Akademi's Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2019, presented in 2023. Outside the family the style passed to Bimalendu Mukherjee, a student of Enayat Khan, and his son Budhaditya Mukherjee.
Key exponents
- Sahabdad Khan, vocalist and sitar or surbahar player, 19th century, named founder in family accounts
- Imdad Khan, sitar and surbahar, late 19th and early 20th century, the gharana's eponym
- Enayat Khan, sitar and surbahar, 1894-1938, Calcutta branch
- Wahid Khan, surbahar and sitar, son of Imdad Khan, head of the second branch
- Vilayat Khan, sitar, 1928-2004, Calcutta branch
- Imrat Khan, surbahar and sitar, 1935-2018
- Shahid Parvez, sitar, present generation of the Wahid Khan branch
- Shakir Khan, sitar, son and disciple of Shahid Parvez
- Budhaditya Mukherjee, sitar, present generation outside the family
Sources
- Darbar Arts Culture Heritage Trust, artist biographies of Vilayat Khan, Imrat Khan, Shahid Parvez and Budhaditya Mukherjee
- Rediff News, obituary of Vilayat Khan (2004)
- Varinder Singh, The Tribune (India), Sammelan loses star guest (2004)
- Outlook (India), obituary of Imrat Khan (2018)
- Official site of Shahid Parvez, Etawah gharana lineage page
- Heritage page of the Imrat Khan family branch (MusicalBeats)