Tradition · vocal gharana · India
Kirana gharana
The Kirana gharana of Hindustani vocal music, founded by Ustad Abdul Karim Khan (1872-1937) at Kairana in Shamli district, Uttar Pradesh. The gharana emphasises a slow-tempo meditative alaap, long sustained swara notes, meend-based glides between notes, and the Khayal composition's development through microtonal nuance (shrutis) rather than rhythmic complexity. Ustad Abdul Karim Khan was the key founder; his style was continued by his daughter Hirabai Barodekar (1905-1989) and his disciples Sawai Gandharva (1886-1952, who trained Bhimsen Joshi and Gangubai Hangal), Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (1922-2011), Pandit Firoz Dastur (1919-2008), and Vidushi Gangubai Hangal (1913-2009). The modern Kirana gharana's distinctive raga interpretation (notably in the Yaman, Malkauns, Bhairavi and Darbari Kanada ragas) has become the dominant North Indian khayal style of the 20-21 century. The Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav at Pune (since 1953) is the gharana's annual festival.
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Tradition
- Hindustani vocal tradition; gharana histories
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 29.395, 77.205
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 (2)
- Teaching lineageIndore gharana
Amir Khan built the Indore gharana in the mid-twentieth century out of Kirana's slow tempo and held notes, Bhendi Bazaar's merukhand permutations and his own preference for a meditative approach with almost no display. It is the youngest recognised gharana and the clearest case of a style assembled deliberately by one musician rather than inherited, which is why some traditionalists have never accepted the term for it.
- Teaching lineageMewati gharana
Mewati and Kirana are the two gharanas that became nationally known in the twentieth century through a single performer each — Pandit Jasraj and Bhimsen Joshi — rather than through a court. Both treat the slow movement as the centre of the performance, and Mewati goes further in making the rāga a vehicle for devotional text rather than the other way round. Recording and radio did for them what patronage had done for the older lineages.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Kirana gharana”. Bonnie Wade and the standard gharana literature; IGNCA and Sangeet Natak Akademi oral-history collections.
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