Ustad Rashid Khan’s career had a meteoric rise. With a rich voice, he amalgamated distinct features of multiple khayal traditions in his repertoire
On January 9, a friend sent a note scribbled on a music score sheet that read: “I was ready to go instead of him. I am just a fortunate beneficiary, whereas Ustad was the giver to many.” At the bottom of the score sheet the aaroh and avroh of raag darbari, a favourite of Ustad Rashid Khan, was engraved. The score sheet resembled a prayer or a lament carved on a gravestone of a beloved.
Many sent such messages to many, on the day Ustad Rashid Khan passed away at the young age of 55, an age when a traditional khayal vocalist is just about establishing her/his place in music history. In my narrow understanding of Indian music, I remember three such early deaths: Pandit Dattatreya Vishnu Paluskar of the Gwalior gharana, and Carnatic musicians, NC Vasanthakokilam and U Srinivas.
Ustad Rashid Khan was born to Hamid Reza Khan and Shakhri Begum on July 1, 1968 in Budaun in Uttar Pradesh. Reza Khan was a Sufi singer. Sahaswan in Budaun district was where one of the greatest Sufis of all time, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, was born. Rashid Khan absorbed many lineages in his music, not only what he inherited from the rich genealogy of the khandani school of Rampur-Sahaswan but also the best features of the subcontinent’s many gharanas. It added many layers to his music. In a conversation with Pt Kumar Mukherjee, Rashid Khan said: “I never got the opportunity to listen to Ustad Inayat Hussain Khan’s music, but I had the blessings from the almighty and my pir to learn under my teacher Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan. They all attained these heights by constant devotion and many years of hard work. I can’t even claim the value of dust on their feet.”
It was natural for Rashid Khan to carry the legacy of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana, starting from Ustad Mehboob Baksh Khan to Ustad Inayat Hussain Khan, Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, Ustad Haddu Khan, Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan to Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan. Budaun was also impacted by the rising tide of nationalism in the pre-Independence years. Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan and Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan were in Badaun when Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Budaun in 1921 on the invitation of a Sufi scholar, Maulana Abdul Majid Badayuni, to inspire people to join the national movement. Though the Sufi tradition was influential in Budaun when Rashid Khan was growing up, his focus was on khayal. He sang Sufi songs too, of course, including a popular number in My Name is Khan.
Ustad Rashid Khan created his aesthetic edifice on the strong foundation provided by the Rampur-Sahaswan gayaki, which is related to an even more ancient Gwalior gharana. This school displayed medium-slow tempos, a full-throated voice and baroque rhythmic play. Speedy elaborations of taans and taranas are characteristic of this gharana.
However, Rashid Khan has admitted to a slew of influences, among them Ustad Amir Khan of the Indore gharana (and his father, Shamir Khan, a sarangi player from the Bhendi Bazar gharana), Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan of the Kasur-Patiala gharana, and Pt Bhimsen Joshi of the Kirana gharana. Rashid Khan arrived in Kolkata when he was in his teens. He stayed with his maternal grand-uncle, Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan, who was teaching at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in the city. The big city of multitudes and modernity shaped the sensibility of Rashid Khan as he continued his learning.
Rashid Khan’s career had a meteoric rise at a very early age. With a rich voice, he amalgamated distinct features of multiple khayal traditions in his repertoire and by the time he was 30, the bellwether of Hindustani classical vocal music, Pt Bhimsen Joshi, had heralded him as the future of khayal.
The nonagenarian maestro Prabha Atre lamented the passing away of a much younger Rashid Khan: “He was such a talented and versatile singer. Besides khayal, he adapted to thumri, dadra, ghazal and even film songs. There was no gimmickry in his singing. It was well-chiselled yet intuitive. His command over alap, taan, sargam, and rhythmic patterns was remarkable. Rashid Khan’s singing was inspired, neither run-of-the-mill nor repetitive”.
S Gopalakrishnan is a writer and founder of the podcast, Dilli Dali. The views expressed are personal
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