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Ali Akbar Khan: A Sarod Dynasty’s Central Figure

Ali Akbar Khan’s sister married India’s most famous sitarist. His own children became sarod players too.

📑 Contents

Ali Akbar Khan was born on 14 April 1922, in Shibpur, then British India, now in Bangladesh.
His father was Ustad Allauddin Khan, who redesigned the sarod itself. His sister was Annapurna Devi, a leading surbahar player.
In 1941, Annapurna Devi married Ravi Shankar. This made Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar brothers-in-law.
In 1944, Khan and Ravi Shankar both left their teacher’s court at Maihar together, to launch independent careers.
In 1955, violinist Yehudi Menuhin invited him to New York, for a landmark US debut.
In August 1971, Khan performed at the Concert for Bangladesh, at Madison Square Garden. Ravi Shankar, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton also performed.
He founded music colleges in Calcutta in 1956, then in California in 1967, and in Basel, Switzerland, in 1985.

Khan had 11 children in total. Several became sarod players themselves, including Aashish Khan, Alam Khan, and Manik Khan.
He received the Padma Bhushan in 1967, and the Padma Vibhushan in 1989.
In 1991, he became the first Indian musician to win the MacArthur Fellowship, the United States’ “genius grant.”
In 1997, he received the National Heritage Fellowship, from the US National Endowment for the Arts.
Across his career, he received five Grammy nominations.
Beyond performing, he also composed original ragas and film scores.

Khan did not personally teach George Harrison the sarod. Their real, documented link is performing at the same 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. Harrison’s own sitar training came from Ravi Shankar, not from Khan.
The sarod instrument’s own history, and Allauddin Khan’s redesign of it, is covered in ArtnCulture0105 (Sarod). This article instead focuses on Ali Akbar Khan’s own life and legacy.
Khan’s own family became a genuine multi-generational sarod dynasty. His father, himself, and his own sons all mastered the instrument, spanning three generations inside one family.