The Cosmos of Ustaad Saami

“Original” is complicated and disputed. Restricting to khyal, and the major lineages:

1. The oldest composers of khyal we know of were Niyamat Khan (“sadarang”) and his nephew Firoz Khan (“adarang”) who were chief musicians in the Delhi Durbar of Muhammed Shah “Rangile” (1720-1749). Their compositions still form the backbone of the music – maybe ~25% of performances are their compositions. This family continued to produce major dhrupad. veena and sitar players for over a 100 years, but vanished from the musical scene post 1857.
2. The major existing khyal gharanas:
3. Gwalior: Ustads Haddu Khan, Hassu Khan and their son Nathan Khan (~1850s to 1900s), who explicitly sought out and taught Maharashtrian Brahmins. Most notably Balakrishnabua Ichalkaranjkar (who then taught Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, a favorite of the Mahatma and the man who created music schools called Gandharva Mahavidyalaya with the explicit goal of democratising and “reclaiming” the music). The original gwalior family no longer performs music.
4. Agra-Atrauli: Ustads Faiyaz Khan and Vilayat Hussain Khan (c 1900-1950) his sons taught dozens of Hindus, most notably SN Ratanjankar and Jagannathbua Purohit. Still an active family with Muslim performers.
5. Jaipur-Atrauli: Ustad Alladiya Khan (~1860-1950) and his sons taught multiple great Hindu singers, most notable Bhaskarbua Bakhle, Kersarbai Kerkar and Mallikarjun Mansur. The original family no longer performs music.
6. Kirana: Ustad Abdul Karim Khan (~1880-1937) changed the way khyal was concieved and was an extremely influential singer. He was a true secularist and married and taught many Hindus, his student-lineage includes Pt Bhimsen Joshi who ran away from his home to learn music after listening to his records. The original family has a few singers (notably Arshad Ali Khan).
7. Patiala: Mostly in Pakistan, in India was represented by Bade Ghulam Ali Khan whose son taught Ajoy Chakraborty, who is now the most influential and respected khyal singer in India. Influential Pakistani singers post-Independence were almost all from Patiala or highly influenced by Patiala (eg. Salamat/Nazakat Ali, Amanat/Fateh Ali). The original families have a few singers but no one at the same level.
8. Delhi: A few families “claim” to be of the Delhi Gharana. Naseeruddin Sami actually has the stronger claim than the current residents of Delhi who also make a claim. He is a descendant of “Tanras” Khan, chief musician and teacher to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Empreror. Tanras Khan was highly influential, teaching the Patiala singers as well.

Apart from the list of names, we can say that virtually all these Ustads came from a small area around the Ganga-Yamuna Doab, say within 100kms of Delhi. They were almost all converts to Shia Islam. They all trace their origins back to known Hindu court musicians (eg. Gopal Nayak, Sujan Singh) or wandering saint musicians (eg. Swami Haridas). Like Tansen himself, they were originally Hindu but by 1700 we can say most important singers in North India were Muslim. Many of their families are linked by complex webs of inter-marriage and teaching.

Even after converting to Islam (and no doubt many of them were genuinely devout) many continued to sing in Hindu temples and all of them sang compositions praising Hindu gods and goddesses. However there is a massive influence of Sufi music and themes starting 1700 which remains a major pillar of the musical form.

Note that while every single major khyal gharana today has links to the Muslim Ustads, many traditions and families have died out in India (Sikandra, Hapur, Khurja, the original Delhi of Tanras Khan). To generalize, all of those did not teach outside the family (particularly talented Hindus) are now dead.