Jaipur-Atrauli

Jaipur Atrauli

Provenance

Two Indian towns, Jaipur and Atrauli. The history being that while the family of Alladiya Khansaheb was originally from Atrauli, a town near Aligarh, they moved to Jaipur finding employment in the court of the Maharaja of Jaipur.
Founder

Ustad Alladiya Khan (1855-1943)
Genealogy

Genre

The Peerless & Illustrious

Significant artists of this gharana include the disciples of Ustad Alladiya Khan, such as Moghubai Kurdikar and Pandit Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale, Alladiya Khan"s brother Haider Khan and sons Manji Khan and Burji Khan, Nivruttibuva Sarnaik, Abdul Majid Khan and sons Muhammad Sayeed and Muhammad Rasheed, Kesarbai Kerkar and Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur

The Torchbearers

Kishori Amonkar, Padma Talwalkar, Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Shruti Sadolikar

Anecdotes

Comments

The striking feature of the Jaipur - Atrauli gharana is the use of melodic phrases with 'vakra' (wavering) complex patterns that have a deep melodic form. The contrasting styles between this gharana and those of Gwalior and Kirana are very striking, especially the Jaipur style of linking successive notes without clouding their individual identities while completing the vocal pattern. This gharana tends to use traditional 'bandishes' (compositions) and does not lay as much emphasis on the lyrical content of the bandish as much as it lays on the raga notes within the composition. Therefore while presenting the bandish the words are used in a more melodious fashion without adequate clarity of diction on each word. Moreover in terms of intricate raga exposition, the badhat (advanced stages) of the raga is presented using bol alaap rather than pure aakar (phonetic expansion of the letter 'a'.) It is interesting to note that this gharana does not use sargam taans (usage of actual notes to present a taan), as it uses tight compositions, which leaves not too much scope for such taans.