Tradition · sitar gharana · India
Etawah–Imdadkhani gharana
The Etawah-Imdadkhani gharana of Hindustani instrumental music (sitar and surbahar), founded by Ustad Imdad Khan (1848-1920) at Etawah in Uttar Pradesh. The gharana emphasises a vocal-style (gayaki-ang) sitar performance, extensive meend (gliding notes) through chikari-string drone support, and the development of the long slow alaap and jor (unmetered improvisation) sections. Ustad Imdad Khan was the father of the famous four-sitarist lineage: Ustad Enayat Khan (1894-1938), Ustad Wahid Khan, Ustad Vilayat Khan (1928-2004) and Ustad Imrat Khan (1935-2018). Ustad Vilayat Khan's 'Vilayat Khan style' sitar (with its lighter plectrum and vocal-style phrasing) became the dominant modern sitar idiom alongside Ravi Shankar's Maihar gharana style. The gharana's institutional centre is now in Kolkata where Ustad Imrat Khan's son Nishat Khan (b.1961) continues the tradition. The Etawah-Imdadkhani gharana defines modern Indian sitar performance.
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Tradition
- Hindustani instrumental tradition; gharana histories
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 26.776, 79.021
A gharana is a lineage/tradition rather than a simple place-bound institution; the mapped point is an origin, court, or major associated centre and should not be read as an exclusive birthplace.
Connections (1)
- Court associationAllauddin Khan
The Maihar and Etawah lines are the two schools that between them define modern sitar playing, and they play the instrument differently on purpose. Etawah developed the gāyakī ang, drawing meend across several frets so the sitar imitates a singing voice; Maihar under Allauddin Khan worked from instrumental and dhrupad structure instead. Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan are the two positions personified, and the argument between them lasted fifty years.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Etawah gharana”. Bonnie Wade and the standard gharana literature; IGNCA and Sangeet Natak Akademi oral-history collections.
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