Ustad Vilayat Khan (28 August 1928 – 13 March 2004) was an

Indian classical Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were not ...

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...

player.Profile of Vilayat Khan on Encyclopædia Britannica
Retrieved 12 October 2020 Along with

Imdad Khan Ustad Imdad Khan (1848 – 1920) was a sitar and surbahar player. He was the first sitar player ever to be recorded.Enayat Khan Ustad Enayat Khan ( ur, عنایت خان ; 1894–1938) also known as Nath Singh was one of India's most influential sitar and surbahar players in the first decades of the 20th century. He was the father of Vilayat Khan, one of the topmost s ...

, and

Imrat Khan Imrat Khan (17 November 1935 – 22 November 2018) was an Indian sitar and surbahar player and composer. He was the younger brother of sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan.Farrell, Gerry (2001)"Khan, Imrat" ''Grove Music Online''. (subscription ...

, he is credited with the creation and development of ''gayaki ang'' (an attempt to mimic the sound of the human voice) on the sitar. He recorded his first 78-RPM disc at the age of 6, and gave his last concert in 2004 at the age of 75. He has composed the music for several films, including Jalsaghar (1958), The Guru (1969), and Kadambari (1976). He had given a chance to newcomer

Kavita Krishnamurthy Sharada Krishnamurthy, popularly known as Kavita Krishnamurthy or Kavita Subramaniam, is an Indian playback and classical singer. She has recorded 50,000 songs in 45 various Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Rajasthani, Bhoj ...

in Kadambari which was the first song in her career.

Early life

Vilayat was born in Gouripur, Mymensingh in then

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = Ea ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

and current

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

. His father

Enayat Khan Ustad Enayat Khan ( ur, عنایت خان ; 1894–1938) also known as Nath Singh was one of India's most influential sitar and surbahar players in the first decades of the 20th century. He was the father of Vilayat Khan, one of the topmost s ...

was recognised as a leading sitar and

surbahar ''Surbahar'' (; ) sometimes known as bass sitar, is a plucked string instrument used in the Hindustani classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is closely related to the sitar, but has a lower pitch. Depending on the instrument's size, it ...

(bass sitar) player of his time, as had been his grandfather,

Imdad Khan Ustad Imdad Khan (1848 – 1920) was a sitar and surbahar player. He was the first sitar player ever to be recorded.Imdadkhani gharana by his father and other relatives in the family. Imdadkhani gharana is also called

Etawah gharana The Etawah gharana is a North Indian school of sitar and surbahar music and named after a small town close to Agra where Imdad Khan (1848–1920) lived.Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra ...

where Imdad Khan lived. This family represents the sixth generation of musicians that dates back to the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. However, Enayat Khan died when Vilayat was only ten, so much of his education came from the rest of his family: his uncle, sitar and surbahar maestro

Wahid Khan Wahid Khan was an Indian surbahar and sitar player. He was the son of Imdad Khan and belonged to the Imdadkhani gharana or ''Etawah gharana'' of classical music. Early life Wahid Khan was born in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh. He was still quite young ...

, his maternal grandfather, singer Bande Hassan Khan, and his mother, Bashiran Begum, who had studied the practice procedure of his forefathers. His uncle, Zinde Hassan, looked after his

riyaz Riyaz () is the systematic practice of music, dance or any other art form usually under the guidance of a teacher or preceptor. In Hindustani classical music tradition, it is employed as a repertoire of exercises to cultivate the musicality of on ...

(practice). As a boy, Vilayat wanted to be a singer; but his mother, herself from a family of vocalists, felt he had a strong responsibility to bear the family torch as a sitar maestro.

Performing career

Vilayat Khan performed at ''All Bengal Music Conference'', as his first concert, organized by Bhupen Ghosh in Kolkata with

Ahmed Jan Thirakwa Ustad Ahmed Jan Khan "Thirakwa" was an Indian tabla player, commonly considered the pre-eminent soloist among tabla players of the 20th century, and among the most influential percussionists in the history of Indian Classical Music. He was kn ...

on tabla. His performance at the concert organized by Vikramaditya Sangeet Parishad, Mumbai in 1944 drew the headline "Electrifying Sitar". In the 1950s, Vilayat Khan worked closely with instrument makers, especially the famous sitar-makers Kanailal & Hiren Roy, to further develop the instrument. Also, he liked to perform without a

tanpura The tanpura (), also referred to as tambura and tanpuri, is a long-necked plucked string instrument, originating in India, found in various forms in Indian music. It does not play melody, but rather supports and sustains the melody of an ...

drone, filling out the silence with strokes to his

chikari The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present for ...

strings. Some

raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradition, and as ...

s he would somewhat re-interpret (Bhankar, Jaijaivanti), others he invented himself (Enayatkhani Kanada, Sanjh Saravali, Kalavanti, Mand Bhairav), but he was first and foremost a traditional interpreter of grand, basic ragas such as Yaman, Shree,

Todi Todi () is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) of the province of Perugia (region of Umbria) in central Italy. It is perched on a tall two-crested hill overlooking the east bank of the river Tiber, commanding distant views in every direction. I ...

Darbari Darbari Kanada, or simply Raga Darbari, (pronounced darbāri kānada), is a raga in the Kanada family, which is thought to have originated in Carnatic music and brought into Hindustani classical music by Miyan Tansen, the legendary 16th-ce ...

and

Bhairavi Bhairavi ( sa, भैरवी) is a Hindu goddess, described as one of the Mahāvidyas, the ten avatars of the mother goddess. She is the consort of Bhairava. Etymology The name ''Bhairavi'' means "terror" or "awe-inspiring". She is th ...

. He was known for improvisation with his knack for finding the different patterns in the ragas he played. Vilayat Khan was both a traditional sitar player and a maverick innovator in his music. He was given a lot of credit for developing a sitar style called 'gayaki ang', where his sitar attempted to mimic the sound of the human voice and seemed to give the audience a sense that the sitar was singing. He invented a technique of bending a note after the sitar string was plucked, creating a sound after-effect from it. This technique later influenced other sitar players. When he died from lung cancer in 2004, Vilayat Khan had been recording for over 65 years and broadcasting on

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

almost as long. He had been touring outside India off and on for more than 50 years, and was probably the first Indian musician to play in England after independence (1951). In the 1990s, his recording career reached a climax of sorts with a series of ambitious CDs for India Archive Music in New York, some traditional, some controversial, some eccentric. During his long career, he toured and performed in

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. Vilayat composed and conducted the score for three feature films – Satyajit Ray's '' Jalsaghar'' (1958) in Bengali, Merchant-Ivory Productions' '' The Guru'' (1969) in English, and Madhusudan Kumar's ''Kadambari'' (1976) in Hindi. He also composed the music for a little-known documentary film in Bengali produced by Dr Barin Roy, entitled ''Jalsaghar''; he won a silver medal for composing at the

1st Moscow International Film Festival The 1st Moscow International Film Festival was held from 3 to 17 August 1959. The Grand Prix was awarded to the Soviet film ''Destiny of a Man'' directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. Jury * Sergei Gerasimov (USSR - President of the Jury) * Antonin Br ...

Personal life

The

kept a Hindu name of Nath Singh. Vilayat Khan himself composed many

bandish Bandish, cheez or gat is a fixed, melodic composition in Hindustani vocal or instrumental music. It is set in a specific raga, performed with rhythmic accompaniment by a tabla or pakhawaj, a steady drone, and melodic accompaniment by a sarangi, ...

es using the pen name, Nath Piya. In an interview given to Karan Thapar for BBC in early 2002, Vilayat Khan admitted to having the Rajput name – Kahan Singh. Khan spent much of his life in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...

(now

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

). He was married twice. Vilayat Khan's first wife was a beautiful Hindu socialite from Calcutta, (late) Monisha Hazra (marriage 1958–59). He had three children from his first marriage: Yaman Khan, Sufi singer

Zila Khan Zila Khan is an Indian Sufi singer and actor. She sings classical and semi-classical musical forms and performs in the tradition of Imdadkhani gharana. She has acted in Bajirao Mastani a film by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and also actively acts in ...

, and sitarist

Shujaat Khan Shujaat Husain Khan (born 19 May 1960) is one of the greatest North Indian musicians and ''sitar'' players of his generation. He belongs to the Imdadkhani ''gharana'' school of music. He has recorded over 100 albums and was nominated for a Gram ...

(b. 1960). By his second marriage, Vilayat Khan had one son, Hidayat (b. 1975), also a professional sitarist. Vilayat Khan was survived also by his younger brother,

. The brothers played duets in their youth but had a severe falling-out and for years were not on speaking terms. Vilayat's nephews

Rais Khan Ustad Rais Khan ( ur, ‎; 25 November 19396 May 2017) was a Pakistani sitarist. At his peak he was regarded as one of the greatest sitar players of all time. He continued performing till his last days. He moved from India to Pakistan in 1 ...

Nishat Khan Nishat Khan (born 25 October 1960) is an Indian sitar player from an illustrious musical family and the foremost sitar virtuoso of his generation. As a composer and music producer he has collaborated with some of the world's leading musicians su ...

, and

Irshad Khan Irshad Khan (born ) is an Indian classical surbahar and sitar player based in Canada. He is the second son of Imrat Khan and nephew of Vilayat Khan. Irshad's international debut was at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, UK, when he was only 13; h ...

are also sitar players. His son

(b. 1960) from his first wife is also an accomplished sitar player and continues the family tradition. Vilayat took few disciples other than his sons; among the best-known are

Kashinath Mukherjee Kashinath Mukherjee (8 January 1925 - 28 October 2011) was a Hindustani classical musician and sitar player of Etawah Gharana. Kashinath Mukherjee was born in Kolkata into an aristocratic family having a rich cultural heritage. His father Shital ...

(younger brother of film director

Hrishikesh Mukherjee Hrishikesh Mukherjee (30 September 1922 – 27 August 2006) was an Indian film director, editor and writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema. Popularly known as ''Hrishi-da'', he directed 42 films during his ca ...

Arvind Parikh Arvind Parikh (born 19 October 1927) is an Indian classical sitar player. Early life Arvind was born in Ahmedabad into a Gujarati business family with cultural and spiritual influences. His father Natwar Lal was a businessman and mother Chandra ...

, and Hasu Patel. He also gave sitar lessons to

Big Jim Sullivan James George Tomkins (14 February 1941 – 2 October 2012), known professionally as Big Jim Sullivan, was an English musician whose career started in 1958. He was best known as a session guitarist. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of t ...

, the famous English

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

. He trained his daughter, Zila, in sitar and vocal music and also made her a formal student in a ceremony in 1991. The ceremony appears in a documentary made in 1991 and also in India's Ministry of External Affairs film on his life, entitled ''Spirit to Soul''. Vilayat Khan made the United States his second home and had a residence in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of w ...

besides

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, district and is governed by the Dehr ...

and

, India.

Controversy

In 1964 and 1968, respectively, Vilayat was awarded the

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

and

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

awards – India's fourth and third highest civilian honours for service to the nation – but refused to accept them, declaring the committee musically incompetent to judge him. "Pointing out that sitar and its 'Parampara' (tradition) had seen the longest ever tradition in his family and his ancestors had chiseled the 'Gayaki Ang' (style mimicking the sound of human voice), crucial to the playing of the instrument, Khan said no other 'gharana' was older than his in this arena." In January 2000, when he was awarded the

Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service". All persons without ...

, the second highest civilian award, he again refused, going so far as to call it "an insult". This time he stated that he would not accept any award that other sitar players, his juniors and in his opinion less deserving, had been given before him. "If there is any award for sitar in India, I must get it first", he said, adding that "there has always been a story of wrong time, wrong person and wrong award in this country". He alleged that the Sangeet Natak Akademi had been influenced by lobbying, politics and favouritism while deciding the awardees. Among other honours he turned down was the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. For a while, he also boycotted All India Radio. The only titles he accepted were the special decorations of "Bharat Sitar Samrat" by the ''Artistes Association of India'' and "Aftab-e-Sitar" (Sun of the Sitar) from President

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (13 May 1905 – 11 February 1977) was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as the fifth president of India from 1974 to 1977. Born in Delhi, Ahmed studied in Delhi and Cambridge and was called to the bar from the ...

Death and legacy

Vilayat Khan died on 13 March 2004 at

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

, India at age 75. The

Press Trust of India The Press Trust of India Ltd., commonly known as PTI, is the largest news agency in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 500 Indian newspapers. It has over 500 full-time employees , including a ...

reported that Vilayat Khan had lung cancer, diabetes and hypertension.

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

(New Delhi Television) reportedly quoted the prime minister of India,

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

, saying this in a statement, "Ustad Vilayat Khan was a child prodigy to whom goes the credit of taking the sitar beyond the shores of this country." In September 2014, a postage stamp featuring Khan was released by

India Post India Post is a government-operated postal system in India, part of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings ...

commemorating his contributions.

Selected Discography

;Primary artist * ''India’s Master of the Sitar'' (1969, Capitol/EMI) ;Contributing artist * ''

The Rough Guide to the Music of India and Pakistan ''The Rough Guide to the Music of India and Pakistan'' is a world music compilation album originally released in 1996. Part of the World Music Network Rough Guides series, it focuses on the music of India and Pakistan, ranging from Hindi film so ...

'' (1996,

World Music Network World Music Network is a UK-based record label specializing in world music. The World Music Network website features news, reviews, live music listings, and guide sections on world music. It also features an online "Battle of the Bands" competit ...

) * ''When Time Stood Still'' with Kishan Maharaj (2006, Navras).

Footnotes

He kept his childhood interest in vocal music all his life, often singing in concerts, and composed

khyal Khyal or Khayal (ख़याल / خیال) is a major form of Hindustani classical music in the Indian subcontinent. Its name comes from a Persian/Arabic word meaning "imagination". Khyal is associated with romantic poetry, and allows the perfo ...

bandishes using the pen name ''Nath Piya''.