Kirana Gharana Music Academy

Kirana Gharana Music Academy is a music school established with the vision to preserve the gharana gayaki and inculcate the true essence of Indian music in the modern society. The academy is founded by Amjad Ali Khan, a direct descendant of the prestigious Kirana Gharana, and offers music education in the vocal and instrumental streams.

Kirana gharana traces its origin to the days of Nayak Gopal and Nayak Dhondu. Kirana was a small village near Kurukshetra where many musicians including Beenkars (players of the Been, a string instrument) and Sarangi (a bowing instrument) players took refuge after being driven away by floods. Ustad Bande Ali Khan, the great master of the Been, was the first great luminary of the Kirana school who was taught by his father Ustad Sadiq Ali Khan and also combined in him a few aspects of the Gwalior gayaki (one of the oldest gharanas of India). He had a large following of Disciples including Murad Khan (Beenkar, Bhaiya Ganpat Rao (Harmonium), Jafar Khan (the grandfather of Halim Jafer Khan) and Rehmat Khan Dharwarwale. The legendary Bhaskar Buva Bakhle was also initially taught by Ustad Bande Ali Khan.

It was late in the nineteenth century that the two ustads Abdul Karim Khan and Abdul Wahid Khan, also considered as the real founders of the gharana, revolutionized the very concept of khayal gayaki by introducing the vilambit or the slow tempo method to delineate the raga note by note known as the Khandmeeru. Abdul Karim Khan’s music was mesmerizing and never failed to have the entire audience in tears. He was truly a melifluity incarnate and his high pitched impeccable voice was often not discernable from the drone of his jora taanpuras. Abdul Waheed Khan’s music was more authoritative and he was known to be capable of performing a single raga for four or five hours together. He was conferred the title of, "sirtaaj-e-mousiki", meaning the crown of all musicians.

The two ustads had a whole group of celebrated musicians as their disciples who carried on the legacy over the decades of the century. Abdul Karim Khan’s three children Sureshbabu Mane, Hirabai Barodekar, Saraswati Rane established themselves as leading exponents of the gharana, out of whom Hirabai Barodekar became the most illustrious. She in fact received her talim mainly from Ustad Abdul waheed Khan. Other major disciples included, Balkrishna Buva Kapileshwari, Ganesh Ramchandra Behere, Sawai Gandharva, Firoz Dastur and the inimitable Roshan Ara Begum. These masters in their own time went on to produce greats like Bhimsen Joshi, Gangubai Hangal, Manik Varma, Prabha Atre and many others.

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