Gharanas: The Lineages Behind India’s Classical Arts

The word gharana means “family”. A gharana is a style started by one family of musicians. Later students from outside the family also learn it.

How does a gharana get its name?

Most gharanas take the name of a town. Examples are Gwalior, Patiala and Kirana. Some take the name of a great musician instead. The Imdadkhani sitar style is one example.

What makes one gharana different from another?

Think of a performance in two parts. The first part is the “matter” (babat): what you play. The second is the “manner” (tarika): how you play it. Two gharanas may sing the same raga. They still present it in different ways. That difference is what a gharana protects.

How does a gharana pass on its style?

Teaching is by guru-shishya parampara. The student learns from a teacher over many years. Many gharanas began inside families. Some, like Maihar, spread mainly through students.

What is the memory hook?

Gharana means family. The name comes from a town or a master. The style lives in the manner of playing.

Khayal is the main vocal form of Hindustani music. Two of its oldest schools are Gwalior and Agra.

What is special about the Gwalior gharana?

The Gwalior gharana began in the early nineteenth century near Gwalior. Nathan Khan and Pir Baksh are named as founders. Nathan Khan moved from Lucknow with his grandsons Hassu and Haddu Khan. They became its chief voices.

Bade Mohammed Khan is credited with bringing the taan into khayal. A taan is a fast run of notes. It is a main difference between dhrupad and khayal singing.

The style is simple and clear. Singers often chose well-known ragas like Yaman and Bhairav. Listeners then follow the finer points instead of hunting for the raga. It is described as probably the oldest gharana in khayal singing.

What is special about the Agra gharana?

Agra is said to be founded by Shamrang and Sasrang. They sang the older dhrupad-dhamar style. Khayal came into the school in the mid-nineteenth century.

Agra pays close attention to layakari. That is the play of rhythm. It comes from the dhrupad and dhamar link. Faiyaz Khan gave the school its separate identity.

How do their songs differ?

Agra singers play with rhythm through the words of the song. This is bol-laya. Gwalior stresses a plain and open presentation.

What is the memory hook?

Gwalior means simple and clear. Agra means rhythm and words.

These three schools shaped much of modern khayal. Each has a clear founder and a clear sound.

Where does the Kirana name come from?

Kirana is a place in Haryana near Kurukshetra. It is the birthplace of Abdul Karim Khan (1872-1937). Bande Ali Khan is said to be the source of the school’s elegance. Abdul Karim Khan is called the founder of its modern style.

He moved to Baroda and then Mysore. So the school spread across Maharashtra and Karnataka. He founded a school in Dharwar. Bhimsen Joshi, Gangubai Hangal and Kumar Gandharva came from it.

Abdul Karim Khan stressed clear notes and a calm unfolding of the raga. The school also includes thumri in its khayal. Its thumri has no laggi, which is a doubling of the tempo.

What is special about the Patiala gharana?

Many scholars trace Patiala back to the Delhi gharana. Its founders were Ali Baksh and Fateh Ali Khan. They were known as “Alia-Fattu”. They trained under Kale Khan, a well-known sarangi player.

So the sarangi has a strong effect on its singing. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan is the best-known name from Patiala.

What is special about the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana?

The family came from Atrauli, a town near Aligarh. They moved to the court of the Maharaja of Jaipur. Alladiya Khan (1855-1943) is the founder.

Its mark is the vakra, or wavering, melodic phrase. The patterns are complex and deep. The school does not use sargam taans. Its songs are tight, so there is little room for them. Kesarbai Kerkar, Mallikarjun Mansur and Kishori Amonkar belong to it.

What is the memory hook?

Kirana means clear notes and Karim Khan. Patiala means the sarangi. Jaipur-Atrauli means vakra phrases and Alladiya Khan.

Gharanas are not only for singers. Kathak dance has them too. The two best known are Lucknow and Jaipur.

How did Kathak reach this stage?

Kathak is said to go back about 2,000 years. It began in temples. It moved to the courts in the Mughal period. There it shifted from worship to court entertainment.

How did the Kathak Kendra bring the gharanas together?

The Kathak Kendra began in 1955 as the Kathak wing of the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra. Shambhu Maharaj, a celebrated guru of the Lucknow gharana, led the department. It became part of the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1964. The Akademi took over its running in July 1969.

Birju Maharaj, nephew of Shambhu Maharaj, later headed the faculty. The Kendra merged formats from the Lucknow and Jaipur gharanas.

How does Kathak training begin?

Training starts with tal practice, where the feet follow the beat. A tal is a fixed group of beats. The sound made by stamping is called tatkar.

What is the memory hook?

Temple, then court. Lucknow and Jaipur. Kathak Kendra in 1964 under the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Sitar, sarod and tabla players have their own lineages. Each lineage has a founder and a few clear marks.

What is the Maihar gharana?

Maihar is a newer gharana. It is rooted in the town of Maihar in Madhya Pradesh. Allauddin Khan, called “Baba”, founded it. He was a disciple of Wazir Khan of the Rampur gharana.

Maihar draws much from dhrupad. It uses the ladi, a chain of quick tremolo strokes. Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and Nikhil Banerjee belong to it. Many of its students came by guru-shishya parampara, not by birth into the family.

What is the Imdadkhani gharana?

Imdad Khan (1848-1920) played the sitar and surbahar. His family tradition is called the Imdadkhani gharana, or the Etawah gharana. In his time, every instrument copied dhrupad singing. Imdad Khan chose the khayal style instead. He became the world’s first recorded sitarist in 1904. Vilayat Khan was his grandson.

What is the Delhi tabla gharana?

The Delhi gharana is the oldest tabla gharana. It began in the early eighteenth century. Siddhar Khan Dhadi is most probably its founder. He was a pakhawaj player and brought pakhawaj bols to the tabla. It is known for many qaidas and lighter strokes.

What is the memory hook?

Maihar means Allauddin Khan. Imdadkhani means Etawah and sitar. Delhi means the oldest tabla school.

Mallikarjun Mansur was one of the great singers of the twentieth century. UPSC asked about his gharana in 2026. His training is a good way to see how gharanas mix.

The options were Agra Gharana, Gwalior Gharana, Patiala Gharana and Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana. The answer is Jaipur-Atrauli. Mansur was born in Mansur village near Dharwad in Karnataka on 31 December 1910. His gharana is still Jaipur-Atrauli.

How did Mansur learn his art?

His first guru was Appayya Swamy, a Karnatak singer.

Then he learned from Neelkanth Bua Alurmath of Gwalior from age twelve to eighteen. Later he went to Alladiya Khan of Jaipur-Atrauli. Alladiya Khan passed him to his son Manji Khan. After Manji Khan died in 1937, he learned from Bhurji Khan for ten years.

What honours did he win?

He received the Padma Shri in 1970, the Padma Bhushan in 1976 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1992. He also won a Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship in 1982.

What are the traps?

• Kirana is named after a place in Haryana, not Karnataka. Its influence is strongest in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
• Gwalior is probably the oldest khayal gharana. Agra is linked with dhrupad-dhamar and rhythm.
• Jaipur-Atrauli is named for two towns, Jaipur and Atrauli.
• Maihar is a newer gharana. Allauddin Khan founded it.
• Kathak has Lucknow and Jaipur gharanas.

What is the memory hook?

Mansur means Jaipur-Atrauli, even though he learned from three schools.