Indore Gharana

The tradition of Indore gharana of Sitar Playing began in the second half of the 18th century. The list of follwers of this gharana - Ustad Wahid Khan, his contemporary musician Ustad Bande All Khan Sahab, Ustad Halim Jaffar Khan Sahab’s grandfather Murravat Khan Sahab, Murad Khan Sahab (beenkar) Abdul Latif Khan (beenkar), Mohmad Khan Desai Faridi, Ustad Rajab Ali Khan (vocalist), Babu Khan Sahab (beenkar), Mushraf Khan (sitariya), Osman Khan (been), Gulam Rasool (sitar), Rehmat Khan (sitariya Who settled in Dharwad), Nazir Khan of Jaora, Mohamad Khan (Beenkar Sitar) Chopatiwage, Jaffer Khan Amanat Khan (vocalist), Krishnarao Raghunath Rao Ashtewale, Krishnarao Kolapure (Pandharinath Kolhapure’s father), Dewaskar Bhaiyya (vocalist), Sajjad Hussein Khan (Whose name is mentioned by Bhatkhandeji in the Kramik Pushtak Malika (vol.iv), Ustad Amir Khan and so on. All these musicians took the art of singing and sitar Playing to great heights. Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffar Khan Saheb also hails from the same tradition. It is a characteristic feature of Indore gharana that the followers of this gharana have settled only in placed like lndore, Dewas, Jawra, Jabalpore (Madhya Pradesh) Whereas many Other musicians came to these Places from elsewhere and were influenced by the tradition of lndore gharana.

The Jaffarkhani baj has its own style that effectively utilises the twelve different technical components for the gat development through the duration of 16 matras. The necessity of employing such components arose from the fact that the masitkhani gat has

some fixed bol-s and they are incapable of bringing out the subtle nuances of many raga-s. The mizrab-s fixed in a particular laya are unable to bring out correct raga form. Therefore, keeping in view the demands of appropriate raga projection, embellishments like meend, murki, jamjama, uchat, khatka, etc., are played using the index finger and the middle finger through the duration of each matra. Hence the skill lies in developing these components effectively to fill the duration of each matra. Thus the usage of 12 components is an essential feature of this baj.

Let us consider bandish-s in raga-s like Sindhu’-Bhairavi, Pahadi, Madhyami, Madhyamad-Sarang (both Vilambit and drut) - we observe that

1. Echoing of notes in higher octaves from a given note.
2. Usage of jhala-only at the end of concert, this is alap, jod, vilambit gat, drut gat and then jhala — thonk jhala.
3. Stages of jod along with progression the use of two strings simultaneously whenever required.
4. Chapka ang
5. Ladhant baj
6. Tha-dugan baj
7. Uchat Ladi
8. Gat Bharan
9. Jhar Bharan
10. Gat-ang chala
11. End of thonk jhala
12. Use of darda, dra rda, sur, jamjama, and uchat throughout the 16 matra-s in order to bring out clear picture of the raga, (with the fraction of matras filled in with ghaseet, kan and different varieties and variation of meends)

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