Person · shehnai player
Bismillah Khan
Also known as Ustad Bismillah Khan, Qamaruddin Khan, Bismillāh Khān
Bismillah Khan (1916–2006) was the musician who took the shehnai, a reed instrument then known mainly from folk and ceremonial playing, onto the Hindustani classical concert stage. Born into a family of court musicians at Dumraon in Bihar and identified for life with Varanasi, he was a devout Muslim who played at Hindu and Muslim ceremonies alike and was seen as a symbol of religious harmony. He played at the Red Fort as India became independent and received the Bharat Ratna in 2001.
- Date
- 1916 – 2006
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
He was named Qamaruddin; the name Bismillah came from his grandfather, a shehnai player, who exclaimed 'Bismillah' — in the name of Allah — on first seeing the baby.
Connections (4)
- Buried atKashi / Varanasi / Banaras
Bismillah Khan's life ended where his reputation was rooted. A Muslim who credited his skill to the blessings of Shiva, he held an honorary doctorate from Banaras Hindu University, was admitted to a Varanasi hospital in March 2006, and died of cardiac arrest on 21 August 2006. The government declared a day of national mourning, and he was buried with a shehnai under a neem tree at the Fatemaan burial ground of old Varanasi, with a 21-gun salute.
- Present atRed Fort, Delhi
Invited by Jawaharlal Nehru, Bismillah Khan played the shehnai at Delhi's Red Fort on 15 August 1947 as the Indian flag was unfurled at the hour of independence; his fame was the reason he was chosen, and the invitation came from the prime minister himself. Until he took it to the concert stage, the shehnai had been chiefly an instrument of traditional ceremonies. His last wish, to play at India Gate in tribute to the country's martyrs, was never fulfilled before his death in 2006.
- Present atKolkata
Bismillah Khan's first major break came in 1937 at the All India Music Conference in Calcutta, where he won three medals and the performance brought the shehnai into the limelight with concert audiences. Before then he had played in stage shows and, from the age of fourteen, at gatherings such as the Allahabad music conference with his uncle. He then went on to play in many countries, although he turned down invitations abroad until the government insisted he play at the Edinburgh Festival in 1966.
- Associated withSatyajit Ray
Bismillah Khan appears as the shehnai player in Satyajit Ray's Jalsaghar (The Music Room, 1958), among the musicians at the concerts of the declining zamindar Biswambhar Roy, with Begum Akhtar as the thumri singer Durga Bai and music by Vilayat Khan. It was Ray's first film to make classical Indian music and dance central to the story, and it won the Best Music Award at the first Moscow International Film Festival.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Bismillah Khan"; "Jalsaghar". Juhi Sinha, Bismillah Khan: The Maestro from Benaras (2011); Rita Ganguly, Bismillah Khan and Banaras: The Seat of Shehnai (1994).
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