Tradition · khyal gharana
Gwalior gharana
The oldest of the Hindustani khyal gharanas, founded at the court of Gwalior in the late eighteenth century by the brothers Haddu Khan and Hassu Khan. Its style — measured tempo, clear enunciation of the bandish, an emphasis on the raag over ornament — is treated as the root khyal tradition every other Hindustani gharana derives from or reacts against.
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (1)
- PatronageGwalior Fort
Gwalior court is where khyal itself was reshaped in the late eighteenth century, in the reign of Daulat Rao Scindia — Haddu Khan and Hassu Khan performed for him and taught most of the next generation, and the fort is the physical setting of that formation. The Gwalior fort is the anchor of every khyal gharana that came after: Agra learned here, Kirana learned here, and the styles that reacted against it took the terms of the reaction from it.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, "Gwalior gharana"; Sangeet Natak Akademi and IGNCA oral-history collections; Bonnie Wade and the standard gharana literature.
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