Agra

Founders: Ust.Gagghe Khuda Bakhsh

India: Faiyyaz Khan, Latafat Hussain Khan, Dinkar Kaikini, Lalith Rao

Pakistan: Asad Ali Khan

Benaras

Founders: Pt.Gopal Mishra (a saarangiya)

Rajan Mishra, Sajan Mishra

Bhendi Bazaar

Founders: Ust.Chajju Khan

Aman Ali Khan, Shashikala Koratkar

Delhi

Founders: Ust.Mamman Khan (a saarangiya)

India: Chand Khan, Nasir Ahmed Khan, Usman Khan, Iqbal Ahmed Khan, Krishna Bisht

Pakistan: Ramzan Khan, Umrao Bundoo Khan

Gwalior

Founders: Ust. Hassu Khan, Ust. Haddu Khan and Ust. Nathu Khan

India:Balakrishna Buva Ichalkaranjikar, Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Vishnu Digambar Palsukar, D.V.Paluskar, Narayan Rao Vyas, Omkarnath Thakur, Malini Rajurkar, Veena Sahasrabuddhe, Sunanda Patnaik, Ram Marathe, Rajubhaya Poochwale, Krishna Rao Shankar Pandit, Ulhas Kashalkar

Pakistan:Umed Ali Khan, Ghulam Rasool Khan, Fateh Ali Khan, Hameed Ali Khan, Manzoor Ali Khan, Ghulam Hussain Shaggan.

Indore

Founder: Ustaad Amir Khan

Jaipur-Atrauli

Founders: Ust.Alladiya Khan

Kesarbai Kerkar, Mogubai Kurdikar, Kishori Amonkar, Mallikarjun Mansur, Vinayakrao Kulkarni, Ashwini Bhide, Padmavati Shaligram-Gokhale, Arati Ankalikar, Shruti Sadolikar, Padma Talwalkar.

Jaipur-Mewati

Founders:

Motiram, Maniram, Jasraj, Pratap Narayan, Sanjeev Abhyankar

Kirana

Founders: Ust.Abdul Karim Khan

India: Sawai Gandharva, Gangubai Hangal, Bhimsen Joshi, Hirabai Barodekar, Basavaraj Rajguru, Rasiklal Andharia, Prabha Atre, Phiroz Dastur, Saraswati Rane, Jitendra Abhisheki, Nachiketa Sharma

Pakistan: Roshan Ara Begum

Patiala

Founders:Ust.Fateh Ali Khan & Ust.Ali Bakhsh

India: Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Munawar Ali Khan, Raza Ali Khan, Vasantrao Deshpande (Bhendi-Bazaar ?), Ajoy Chakraborty, Dilshad Khan, Khan, Parveen Sultana, Begum Akhtar, Naina Devi, Nirmala Devi, Lakshmi Shankar

Pakistan: Fateh Ali Khan, Asad Amanat Ali Khan, Hameed Ali Khan, Barkat Ali Khan

Qawwaal Bachche

Founders: Hazrat Amir Khusrau

India:

Pakistan: Chhotey Ghulam Ali Khan

Ramdasi

Founders: Baba Ramdas Bairagi

Ramdasi Gharana was established shortly after the death of Aurangzeb. The gharana was established in the singing style of Baba Ramdas Bairagi.

Baba Ramdas Bairagi was a resident of Gwalior and was a court musician of Akbar and Jahangir. He had a close relationship with Abdur-Rahim-Khan-E-Khana. Baba Ramdas singing often used to move Khan-E-Khana to tears. Baba Ramdas singing was famous due to his dramatic deep voice. Mian Tansen was a great admirer and a student of Baba Ramdas. It is believed that Mian Tansen was so affected by the deep resonance of Baba Ramdas voice that he styled his singing after him.

Baba Ramdaas was a musicologist with a great knowledge of Shastras of music and treated music as a source of spiritual satisfaction rather than a means of livelihood, unlike Mian Tansen who made music a source of his livelihood and performed to please the emperor for his material gains. This is why Tansen was never called a "Nayak".

Baba Ramdas created many high classical ragas. Some of the Ragas are Ramdasi Malhar, Ramdasi Sarang, Ramkali, Rama, Ramkaunsi, Ramdas, Ram Kalyan, Ram Sakh.

After the death of Baba Ramdas, his son the great Nayak Surdas carried on the tradition and also created many ragas, such as; Surdasi Malhar, Surdasi Todi, Surdasi Kalyan.

Ramdasi Gharana style of singing is not commercially popular and remains obscure in India due to the fact that the great masters from this gharana are brahmins that believe that the main purpose of music is spiritual and not commercial. The music taught in the gharana explores the very rare ragas and rare talas that are not commonly taught in modern times.

SOME OF THE GREAT MASTER OF THIS GHARANA ARE:

The singing style of this gharana is available in rare recordings of Pt. Atma Ram, Pt. N. Dass, Ustad Karim Baksh, Bhai Gopal Singh.

The most significant aspect of this gharana is that most of the singers from this gharana are highly knowledgeable in the shastras of music and are regarded as musicologists with extensive knowledge of rare ragas and talas.

The khayal singing from the masters of this gharana, is a journey in time, a spiritual experience rather than an entertaining experience. Each raga is treated to its original unchanged form. The technique of taans is unlike any other gharana singers. The taans are lovingly called "Damani taans" meaning lightening taans. The taans are almost super natural in their presentation since they are so fast and amazing.

Lovers of Indian classical music that strive to explore the unknown regions of the vast sea of Indian classical music, must explore this obscure style of music that speaks to us of a time long gone.

ARTICLE BY:

DR. RUNE DIRDHAL

Rampur-Seheswan

Founders: Ust.Inayat Khan

Nisar Husain Khan, Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Rashid Khan, Sulochana Brihaspati

Shamchaurasi

Founders:

Pakistan: Nazakat Ali Khan, Salamat Ali Khan, Sharafat Ali Khan, Shafqat Ali Khan, Akhtar Ali Khan, Zakir Ali Khan

Talwandi

Founders:

Pakistan: Mohd. Afzal Khan, Mohd. Hafiz Khan

Unclassified

India: Kumar Gandharva Girija Devi, Siddeshwari Devi Tarapada Chakraborty

Pakistan: Mohammad Hussain Khan