Gharana

In Hindustani music, a gharānā is a system of social organization linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship, and by adherence to a particular musical style. A gharana also indicates a comprehensive musicological ideology. This ideology sometimes changes substantially from one gharana to another. It directly affects the thinking, teaching, performance and appreciation of music.

The word gharana comes from the Hindi word 'ghar', which means 'family' or 'house'. It typically refers to the place where the musical ideology originated; for example, some of the gharanas well known for singing khyals are: Agra, Gwalior, Indore, Jaipur, Kirana, and Patiala.

Vocal gharanas

Khyal gharanas

The gharana system in khyal was rooted in the guru-shishya tradition and was similar to the Dhrupad Bani system. The gharana system was greatly influenced by the gradual fall of the Mughal Empire, which forced musicians to move from Delhi to princely states such as Gwalior, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Patiala and Rampur.

The gharanas have distinct styles of presenting the khyal — how much to emphasize and how to enunciate the words of the composition, when to sing the sthayi and antara, whether to sing an unmetered alap in the beginning, what kinds of improvisations to use, how much importance to give to the rhythmic aspect, and so on. However, an individual performer from a gharana may choose to borrow appealing stylistic aspects of another gharana in his or her gayaki. The prominent khyal gharanas are:^[1]

Gharana	Founding Artists	Approximate founding date	Revived by	Approximate revival date	Features
Gwalior Gharana	Nathan Pir Baksh, Nathu Khan	Mid-16th Century			Bol-baant, bol-taan, no sargam, wide range in taans, alankarik taans, descending sapaat taans, roughly similar emphasis on melody and rhythm, preference for simple (as opposed to compound) ragas, repertoire of bandishes, variety of taans
Agra Gharana	Ghagghe Khudabaksh	Mid-19th century	Faiyaz Khan	Early 20th century	Closer to dhrupad with nom-tom type alap and other elements, rhythmic play, frequent use of tisra jati in teentaal, emphasis on voice culture to achieve wide range and powerful throw of voice, bol-baant, bol-taan, rare use of sargam, slower taans, use of jabda taan, a highest repertoire of traditional and self-composed bandishes, lesser known and popular ragas, highest number of creative Gurus, Academicians & artists in the past many centuries.
Kirana Gharana	Nayak Gopal	Late 17th century	Abdul Karim Khan, Abdul Wahid Khan	Early 20th century	Slow-tempo raga development, emphasis on melody, long and sustained pitches, usually traditional ragas, use of sargam, very little bol-baant, clarity of text pronunciation
Moradabad Gharana		mid of 19th century			Emphasis on breath control to be able to sing long passages in a single breath, use of merukhand for extended alaps, use of gamak taan and sargam, use of some Carnatic ragas
Bhendi Bazaar Gharana	Chhajju Khan, Nazeer Khan, Khadim Hussain Khan	Late 19th century			Emphasis on breath control to be able to sing long passages in a single breath, use of merukhand for extended alaps, use of gamak taan and sargam, use of some Carnatic ragas
Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana	Alladiya Khan	Late 19th century			Repertoire of rare and complex ragas, based on Agra gharana, use of aakaar for badhat, heavy use of teentaal, rupak, jhaptaal and ada-chautaal, rhythmic play, use of bol-baant and bol-taan, rippling taans, heavy emphasis on taans
Patiala Gharana	Bade Fateh Ali Khan, Ali Baksh Khan	Late 19th century			Emphasis on voice development, roughly similar emphasis on melody and rhythm, bol-baant-like sargam with occasional tonic transpositions, occasional use of bol-taan, variety of taans, fast sargam and taan patterns, may or may not include antara, influence of tappa style
Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana	Inayat Hussain Khan	Mid-19th century			Emphasis on melody, little bol-baant or bol-taan, use of sargam, sapaat taans
Indore Gharana	Amir Khan	Mid-20th century			Slow-tempo raga development, improvisation mostly in lower and middle octaves, tendency towards serious and expansive ragas, emphasis on melody, judicious use of pause between improvisations, bol alap and sargam using merukhand patterns, sparing application of murki, use of kan swaras in all parts of performance, controlled use of embellishments to preserve introspective quality, rare use of tihai, careful enunciation of text, may or may not include antara, multiple laya jatis in a single taan, mixture of taan types in a single taan, known for ruba'idar tarana (considered similar to chhota khyal)
Delhi Gharana	Qawwaliyas	Late 18th century	Sangi Khan, Mamman Khan		Extensive use of sargam and taan patterns in both vilambit and drut
Mewati Gharana	Ghagghe Nazir Khan	Mid-19th century	Jasraj	Late 20th century	Emphasis on melody, known for bhajans, sapaat taans and gamak taans, use of sargam
Qawwal Bacche Gharana	Saamat bin Ibrahim				Repertoire of traditional bandishes, systematic alap, gamak taan and bol taan, known for other classical and semi-classical forms
Sham Chaurasia Gharana	Miyan Chand Khan, Miyan Suraj Khan	16th century	Salamat Ali and Nazakat Ali Khan	Mid-20th century	Emphasis on layakari using bol-baant and tihai, fast sargam and taan patterns

Dhrupad gharanas

Dagarvani Gharana, founded by the Dagar family
Bishnupur Gharana, founded by Kirtankars in West Bengal (13th Century)
Darbhanga Mallik Gharana, Darbhanga, Bihar - known for style known as Gaurhar Vani and also has good command on Khandar Vani
Bettiah gharana, founded in Bettiah, Bihar

Thumri gharanas

In the Benares Thumri Gharana, the words in the text of a song are musically embellished to bring out their meaning, while the Lucknow gharana presents intricately embellished and delicate thumris that are explicit in their eroticism. The principal feature of the thumri of the Patiala gharana is its incorporation of the tappa from the Punjab region. It is with this tappa element that the Patiala gharana makes its impact, departing from the khyal-dominated Benaras thumris and the dance-oriented Lucknow thumris.^[2]

Benares Thumri Gharana, revived by Siddheshwari Devi, Rasoolan Bai, Badi Moti Bai, Mahadev Mishra, Girija Devi(mid-20th Century), founded by Kirtankars (13th-Century).^{[citation needed]}
Patiala Thumri Gharana, founded by Ustad Fateh Ali Khan and Ustad Ali Baksh Khan in Patiala, Punjab (18th Century).^{[citation needed]}

Instrumental gharanas

Tabla gharanas

The following are the six widely accepted Tabla Gharanas. The prominent Tabla Gharanas are in bold (ordered based on chronology of founding):^[1]

Delhi gharana is the oldest of the Tabla Gharanas.
Ajrara gharana is an offshoot of and closely associated with the Delhi Gharana.
Lucknow gharana, revived by Late Pandit Anil Bhattacharjee,(Middle 20th century), Swapan Chaudhuri (late 20th Century), has rhythmic development through Kathak.Also Prof.Biswajit Bhattacharjee.(R.B.U.) (Specialist in KATHAKI Baaz) is direct disciple of Late Ustad Wazid Hussain Khalifa and complited his training under the able guidance of his father Pandit.Anil Bhattacharjee,The disciple of Wazid Hussain.Mrs.Nibedita Bhattacharjee[Bagchi]Daughter of Pt.Anil Bhattacharjee, Mr. Timir Roy Chowdhury ( Deciple of Khalifa Ustad Afaq Hussain Khan).
Benares gharana
Punjab gharana, popularized by Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain, developed through its original Pakhawaj repertoire
Farukhabad gharana is the youngest accepted Tabla Gharana, and an offshoot of all of the Gharanas, featuring their main concepts

Gharana	Founding artists	Approximate founding date	Founding location	Famous exponents
Delhi Gharana	Siddhar Khan	Early 18th century	Delhi	Ustad Ghami khan saheb, Ustad Imam Ali Khan,ustad munnu khan saheb, Ustad Latif Ahmed Khan saheb, (son of latif ahmed khan,akbar latif khan & babar latif khan http://akbarlatifkhan.wix.com/babarlatifkhan )Ustad Shafaat Ahmed Khan]]
Ajrara gharana	Kallu Khan, Miru Khan	Early 19th century	Meerut	Ustad Habibuddin Khan,Ustad Mehboob Hussain Khan, Prof. Sudhirkumar Saxena, Ustad Manju Khan s/o late Ustad Habibuddin Khan, (Ustad Yusuf Khan, Pandit Babu Ram Parvesh Singh, Ustad Ramjan Khan Sahib, Pandit Bal Krishan Sharma - disciples of Ustad Habibuddin Khan), Aman Ali, Athar Hussain, Anil Kumar,all are disciples of ustad manju khan s/o late ustad habibudin khan,Ustad Sarwar Sabri and Ustad Akram Khan.
Lucknow gharana	Miyan Bakshu	19th century	Lucknow	Ustad Ilmas Hussain Khan son of Ustad Afaq Hussain Khan,Mr. Timir Roy Chowdhury (Deciple of Khalifa Ustad Afq Hussain Khan), Pt. Achchan Maharaj (Jagannath Maharaj),Late Pandit Anil Bhattacharjee, Prof.Biswajit Bhattacharjee.(R.B.U.),Pt. Santosh Biswas, Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri Ustaad Faiyaz Khan. Mrs.Nibedita Bhattacharjee[Bagchi].
Benares gharana	Ram Sahai	Late 18th century	Benaras	Pt. Ram Sahai, Pt. Anokhelal Mishra, Pt. Shamta Prasad, Pt. Kishen Maharaj, Kumar Bose, Pt. Samar Saha, Pandit Sharda Sahai, Sukhwinder Singh Namdhari, Sandeep Das, Pt. Ramkumar Mishra
Farukhabad gharana	Haji Vilayat Ali Khan	19th century	Farukhabad	Ustad Masit Khan, Ustad Ahmedjan Thirakwa, Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Ustad Keramatullah Khan, Pandit Kanai Dutta, Pandit Shyamal Bose, Pandit Shankar Ghosh, Pt. Anindo Chatterjee, Pandit Abhijit Banerjee,Ustad Sabir Khan, Pandit Nayan Ghosh, Ustad Amir Hussain Khan, Pt Pandharinath Nageshkar, Pandit Bickram Ghosh
Punjab gharana	Miyan Qader Baksh	19th century	Punjab	Ustad Qadeer Buksh, Ustad Shaukat Hussein Khan, Ustad Abdul Sattar Tari Khan, Ustad Alla Rakha Khan, Ustad Zakir Hussain

Wind and string instruments

Imdadkhani (Etawah) Gharana, founded by Imdad Khan (Sitar, Surbahar)
Maihar gharana, Maihar
Bishnupur gharana
Sufiana Gharana of Kashmir (Santoor)

Sitar gharanas

Imdadkhani gharana
Senia Gharana
Indore Gharana
Maihar gharana
Jaipur Gharana
Bishanpur Gharana

Dance gharanas

In Kathak performers today generally draw their lineage from three major schools of Kathak: the Jaipur gharana, the Lucknow gharana and the Banaras gharana (born in the courts of the Kachwaha Rajput kings, the Nawab of Oudh, and Varanasi respectively); there is also a less prominent (and later) Raigarh gharana which amalgamated technique from all three preceding gharanas but became famous for its own distinctive compositions.

References

External links

Gharanas of Hindustani Music
Gharana Tradition, by Prof. R.C. Mehta

[itc-1] Gharanas at ITC Sangeet Research Academy.

[2] Modern history of Hindustani classical music at ITC Sangeet Research Academy.

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