Gwalior

Gwaliar Gharana

Provenance

Early Nineteenth Century near Gwalior.

Founder

Ustad Nathan Khan and Pir Baksh are acknowledged to be the founders of Gwalior Gharana.

Genealogy

Nathan Khan migrated from Lucknow to Gwalior with his grandsons Hassu and Haddu Khan, who later came to be the chief contributors to the gayaki of this gharana. Bade Mohammed Khan was another reputed vocalist of this gharana credited with introducing the concept of 'taan' into the khayal. The taan came to be one of the major distinguishing features between dhrupad and the khayal style of singing. Bade Muhammad Khan preceded Haddu-Hassu Khans. He was the main source of inspiration to the younger duo.

Genre

The highlight of Gwalior gayaki is its simplicity in presentation. Lucidity is important to the Gwalior style that subscribes to the view that easy presentation is the simplest way to involve the listener. It is therefore that exponents of this gharana largely sang ragas such as Yaman, Sarang, Bhairav, Bhup, and Basant etc. These being ragas which the listener easily identify, ensures that they concentrate more on the finer nuances being displayed rather than focusing their energies on identifying the raga and its basic form.

The Peerless & Illustrious

Pt. Shri Balkrishnabuva Paluskar (1849-1927), Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872-1931), Rehamat Khan (died-1920, who lived on Maharashtra), Aptebua, Paranjpebua, Vasudevbua, Shankar Pandit, Eknath Pandit, Anant Manohar Joshi, Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, Gajananrao Joshi, Sharadchandra Arolkar, Omkarnath Thakur, Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Narayanrao Vyas, B.R.Deodhar, D.V.Paluskar, Kumar Gandharva and Shankar Rao Bodas.

The Torchbearers

L.K.Pandit, Jal Balaporia, Laxman Rao Bodas, Malini Rajurkar, Veena Sahasrabuddhe, Padma Talwalkar and Ulhas Kashalkar.

Anecdotes

Comments
Probably the oldest gharana in Khayal Gayaki, where others are said to originate from.