Allauddin Khan

Ali Akbar Khan is recorded as having studied under Allauddin Khan. The recorded working language is Hindi. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are Hindustani classical music. Distinctions recorded are Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Allauddin Khan has been variously described as being born in 1862, 1869, 1871 or 1881, though based on evidences, he was born most likely in c. 1881 in Shibpur village, Comilla District, East Bengal, to Sabdar Hossain Khan and Harasundari. He was given the childhood nickname of Alam (or Alom). His father, commonly known as Sadhu Khan, was an amateur sitarist, a disciple of Kasem Ali Khan, and the maternal uncle of Ustad Wazir Khan of Rampur. Sadhu Khan had five sons—Samiruddin Khan, Aftabuddin Khan, Alauddin Khan, Nayeb Ali Khan, and Ayet Ali Khan—and two daughters, Madhumaloti Khatunand Kadar Khatun. Khan's interest in music manifested during his infancy. He recalled his mother describing his early responsiveness to music: Khan's elder brother, Aftabuddin Khan studied tabla under Ram Kanal Sil, whose brother Ramdan Sil taught violin and vocals. Through exposure to these sessions, a four-to-five-year-old Khan learned thekas performed by the musicians and began replicating them independently. At the age of five, Khan was enrolled in the same school as his elder brother, Aftabuddin. However, he frequently engaged in truancy to attend religious and musical gatherings at a local Shiva temple in Shibpur.

• Illustration — Sabdar Khan and Harasundari Begum Khan recalled that by the age of seven, he began dedicating his time entirely to music, choosing to observe the daily morning and evening prayers, where visiting sadhus performed bhajans and played the sitar, neglecting his academic studies to spend most of his time there.. His family didn't want him to pursue music as a career and was frequently punished because of his strivings, so at the age of eight, he ran from home to nearby village Narayanganj to join a group of Jatra ministrels and reached Dacca with them. While performing with their Jatra music group, he learned to play the dhol alongside other traditional and western instruments. In his teenage years, about fourteen years old, he arrived Calcutta, which he found to be alienish and hostile. Following his hardships in Calcutta without money or any food, Allaudin finally met a kind young man who brought him home, where his mother deeply impressed by Allauddin's vocal talent convinced her husband, Bireswar Babu, to introduce the young boy to vocalist Gopal Chandra Bhattacharya (Nulo Gopal) famous State musician of Maharajah Jatindramohan Tagore of Pathuriaghata. He trained there for about seven year until the demise of his Guru. Following the death of Nulo Gopal, he ceased vocal training and transitioned to instrumental music. He spent seven years under the musician and flautist Amritlal Dutta (Habu Dutta), second cousin of Swami Vivekananda), learning both Indian and Western systems. Driven to master multiple instruments, Allauddin sought out various specialized teachers: • Western Classical Music (Violin & Piano): Mr. Robert Lobo (conductor of the Eden Garden Orchestra) • Shehnai & Percussion: Hazari Ustad • Percussion (Mridangam, Pakhawaj, & Tabla): Nanda Lal Babu • Illustration — Aftabuddin Khan, brother of Allauddin Khan During a Durga Puja festival, he boasted to Raja Jagat Kishore Acharya of Muktagacha Zamindar Bari that he could play every instrument in the world. The Raja challenged his arrogance by making him come in an early morning performance by Ahmad Ali Khan. Moved to tears by the maestro's rendering of Raag Todi, the young Allauddin immediately hugged his feet and begged to become his disciple. For four years, he served Ahmad Ali by cooking, cleaning and accompanying him on stage. During this time, he surreptitiously memorized his guru's repertoire by listening from the kitchen and practicing in secret whenever the Ustad left the house. One day, Ahmad Ali overheard Allauddin practicing Raag Todi in his own style, calling him a thief he immediately ordered him to leave. Though they later reconciled and traveled to Rampur—where Allauddin faithfully surrendered thousands of rupees earned while accompanying with him in Benaras and Patna along with all his savings as Guru Dakshina, based on his own accounts. In Rampur, he learnt about the legendary beenkar Ustad Wazir Khan. There he spent six fruitless months blocked by palace sentries. Despondent and contemplating suicide via opium of two taulas, a sympathetic local maulavi interceded, dissuading him and drafting a petition to Nawab Hamid Ali Khan. Intrigued, the Nawab brought him to the Hamid Manzil palace, where Allauddin's virtuosic audition on the sarod and violin deeply impressed the ruler. The Nawab arranged for a formal Nara ceremony, presenting gifts to Wazir Khan on Allauddin's behalf. Wazir Khan accepted him under the condition that he would only learn sarod, rabab, and sursringar (as the veena was restricted to family members) and that he would never teach these arts to baijis or courtesans. Although officially accepted, Allauddin faced financial hardship and negligence from Wazir Khan for the first three years, during which he sustained himself by playing violin for the State Band under Raja Hussain and furthered his skills by learning under other local master.

Khan trained numerous disciples under the Maihar-Senia gharana, many of whom became prominent exponents of Hindustani classical music across various vocal and instrumental disciplines. Notable students include: • Ali Akbar Khan (son) • Annapurna Devi (daughter) • Ravi Shankar • Nikhil Banerjee • Pannalal Ghosh • Bahadur Khan • Sharan Rani • V. G. Jog • Vasant Rai • Timirbaran • Shripad Bandopdhyay • Rabin Ghosh • Nalin Mazumdar • Jotin Bhattacharya • Rajesh Chandra Moitra • W. D. Amaradeva • David Podiappuhami

• Illustration — Allauddin Khan with Uday Shankar Khan expanded the technical and expressive range of the sitar and sarod by integrating the playing styles, phrasing, and ornamentation of the veena, rabab, sursringar, and surbahar. Prior to these innovations, performances focused heavily on right-hand rhythmic patterns (diri diri strokes) with limited use of sustained glides (meend) or linear melodic passages (sapat tans). Khan also introduced a thick kharaj (bass) string to the sitar to achieve bass Sa. He modified the sarod from its original setup of five main strings, two chikari (drone) strings, and nine sympathetic strings (tarab) to an arrangement featuring fifteen tarab strings, two chikari, four lower strings, and five upper strings. He made all five baz (melody) strings fully operative for plucking and sliding, whereas previous versions only utilized four. He tuned the first lower string to mandra sa. To support bass-dominant rāgas, he added a deep brass string as the first upper string, tuned to either ati mandra pancham or ati mandra madhyam depending on the scale. The remaining four upper strings were added as unstopped jivari strings tuned to Sa-Ga-Ri-Ni to increase resonance, which are plucked alongside the chikari during alap, jod, and jhala sections.. Ustad Allauddin Khan created and introduced several new ragas to the Hindustani classical tradition: Hemant, Hem-Bihag, Haimanti, Madan-Manjari (named after his wife), Manj-Khamaj, Muhammad etc. In 1935, he toured Europe, along with Uday Shankar's ballet troupe.

The foundation of the ensemble is traditionally attributed to the 1918 flu pandemic in India, which left many orphans. Allauddin khan inducted these orphaned children into a musical group to provide them solace and a livelihood. This initiative fructified in 1918 as the Maihar Band. The proposal received immediate patronage from Raja Braj Nath Singh, the ruling prince of Maihar State. • Illustration — Sitar-Banjo • Illustration — Nala Taranga • Illustration — Maihar Band with Allauddin Khan in center He created instruments like Nal Tarang, a percussion-melodic instrument crafted from repurposed gun barrels, Saranga-a larger variant of Sarangi with cello-like sound, Chandra Saranga with leather mounted base of Sarod, fretless but with resonance strings, played using a bow, and Sitar-Banjo, which were incorporated in the Maihar band.

• Illustration — Madan Manjari Devi (1888 - 12 Nov 1989) playing Harmonium Khan married Madanmanjari Devi with whom he had one son, Ali Akbar Khan, and three daughters: Sharija, Jehanara, and Annapurna Devi (born Roshanara Khan). Madina Bhavan named after his wife, also known as Shanti Kutir, served as the gurukul and hub for Maihar Gharana, where he lived from 1918 until his death. In Mailhar house, the walls of Khan's personal chamber were covered with portraits of saints, poets, musicians including Beethoven, composers, and writers, alongside his certificates, doctorates, and portraits of Gods. In contrast, his wife's chamber featured largely bare walls, except for the wall facing her bed, which displays photographs of her immediate family alongside event and performance posters. • Illustration — Khan's residence in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh, now preserved as his memorial.

Allauddin Khan lived a disciplined, and unassuming lifestyle with minimum necessities, completely eschewing personal luxuries. Committed to simple living, he performed his own daily chores, such as washing his own clothes and fetching market supplies, to ensure his students could focus entirely on their musical practice without distraction. He was seen as being completely devoted to music who was not interested in talking or listening about worldly affairs. The strictness he showed on students he himself observed: as a student he would tie his hair to ceiling to stop falling asleep and would practise most of day with little sleep. Though he was very strict and intense in musical affairs, frequently scolding and physically penalizing students, he was known to be very sensitive and pure soul. He routinely cared for wandering sadhus, established bird shelters around his home, and demonstrated compassion for the less fortunate, once using his own musical celebrity in a public market to help a struggling folk drum seller sell his wares. He was widely regarded as a saintly figure and was affectionately addressed as Baba.

In terms of religion, he was considered to be broad-minded. Ustad Allauddin Khan was deeply devoted to the Maa Sharda Devi temple atop the Trikuta Hills in Maihar. When he used to have his daily prayer or Namaz, he would tell Nikhil Banarjee to go to his room and have his Gayatri Japa. Nikhil Banatjee recollected how, often, Khan would be uttering Namaz and crying out Ma, Ma to Goddess Saraswati.

Allauddin Khan died on September 6, 1972. People saw that the burial procession was being attended by the Hindus and Muslims alike and even the chief priest of the temple of Maa Sharda Mandir joined. A tomb was constructed by 1994 in his residence premises as tribute to both Allauddin Khan and his wife, with homage written on the outside by his son Ali Akbar Khan. • Illustration — Tomb of Ustad Allauddin Khan and his wife