Gharana


In Hindustani music, a gharānā is a system of social organisation in the Indian subcontinent, linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship, and more importantly by adherence to a particular musical style.
The word gharana comes from the Hindi word 'ghar' which means 'house'. It typically refers to the place where the musical ideology originated; for example, some of the gharanas well known for singing khyals are: Gwalior, Delhi, Agra, Indore, Kashmiri, Atrauli-Jaipur, Kirana and Patiala. Four famous kathak gharanas are: Lucknow, Atrauli-Jaipur, Benares and Raigarh.

Vocal gharanas

Khyal gharanas

The gharana system in khyal was rooted in the guru–shishya tradition and was similar to the Dhrupad Bani system. The gharana system was greatly influenced by the gradual fall of the Mughal Empire, which forced musicians to move from Delhi to princely states such as Gwalior, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Patiala and Rampur.
The gharanas have distinct styles of presenting the khyal — how much to emphasize and how to enunciate the words of the composition, when to sing the sthayi and antara, whether to sing an unmetered alap in the beginning, what kinds of improvisations to use, how much importance to give to the rhythmic aspect, and so on. However, an individual performer from a gharana may choose to borrow appealing stylistic aspects of another gharana in his or her gayaki. There are ten prominent khyal gharanas, and they are:

Repertoire

In addition to extensive khayal compositions, the gharana is known for its qawwals.
Sawai Gandharva, Bhimsen Joshi, Prabha Atre, Hirabai Barodekar, Gangubai Hangal
Amir Khan
Foremost intention of this gharana is perfect intonation of notes and emphasis on melody, Also, Slow-tempo raga development, long and sustained pitches, usually traditional ragas, use of sargam, very little bol-baant, clarity of text pronunciation, use of some Carnatic ragas and raga features, emphasis on vocal as opposed to instrumental form. Highly decorative and complex taans.
Amir Khan
This Gharana is also known for its versatility, not only known for its Khayal singing but also for venturing into other forms of classical music and placing a strong foothold there as well.
Emphasis on voice development, roughly similar emphasis on melody and rhythm, bol-baant-like sargam with occasional tonic transpositions, occasional use of bol-taan, variety of taans, fast sargam and taan patterns, may or may not include antara, influence of tappa style
In the books they authored—Hindustani Gaanasudha Part 1 and Hindustani Gaanasudha Part 2—they hand-wrote notations for 66 ragas in Braille script.
The gharana has one of the longest lineages of disciples, following traditional guru–shishya parampara.

Dhrupad gharanas

The dhrupad tradition includes four original styles:
  • Dagarbani
  • Gauharbani gharana|Gauharbani
  • Khandarbani gharana
  • Nauharbani gharana
Today's surviving dhrupad traditions are descendants of the aforementioned four styles.
In the Benares gharana, the words in the text of a song are musically embellished to bring out their meaning, while the Lucknow gharana presents intricately embellished and delicate thumris that are explicit in their eroticism. The principal feature of the thumri of the Patiala gharana is its incorporation of the tappa from the Punjab region. It is with this tappa element that the Patiala gharana makes its impact, departing from the khyal-dominated Benares thumris and the dance-oriented Lucknow thumris. The Benares gharana was founded by Kirtankars in the 13th century and revived by Siddheshwari Devi, Rasoolan Bai, Badi Moti Bai, Mahadev Mishra, Girija Devi and Savita Devi.

Instrumental gharanas

Tabla gharanas

The following are the six widely accepted gharanas :
GharanaFounding artistsApproximate founding dateFounding locationFamous exponents
Delhi gharanaSiddhar KhanEarly 18th centuryDelhiGhami Khan, Imam Ali Khan, Munnu Khan, Latif Ahmed Khan, Shafaat Ahmed Khan
Ajrara gharanaKallu Khan, Miru KhanEarly 19th centuryAjraraHabibuddin Khan, Mehboob Hussain Khan, Sudhirkumar Saxena, Manju Khan, Yusuf Khan, Ramjan Khan, Sarwar Sabri, Akram Khan
Lucknow gharanaMiyan Bakshu19th centuryLucknowIlmas Hussain Khan, Timir Roy Chowdhury, Achchan Maharaj, Anil Bhattacharjee, Biswajit Bhattacharjee, Santosh Biswas, Swapan Chaudhuri, Faiyaz Khan
Benares gharanaRam SahaiLate 18th centuryBenaresRam Sahai, Kanthe Maharaj, Anokhelal Mishra, Shamta Prasad, Kishen Maharaj, Mahapurush Mishra, Kumar Bose, Ananda Gopal Bandopadhyay, Samar Saha, Sandeep Das
Farrukhabad gharanaHaji Vilayat Ali Khan19th centuryFarrukhabadUstad Amir Hussain Khan, Masit Khan, Ahmedjan Thirakwa, Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Keramatullah Khan, Kanai Dutta, Shyamal Bose, Shankar Ghosh, Anindo Chatterjee, Bickram Ghosh
Punjab gharanaMiyan Qader Baksh19th centuryPunjabQadeer Buksh, Shaukat Hussein Khan, Alla Rakha Khan, Zakir Hussain, Yogesh Samsi, Abdul Sattar Tari Khan

Wind and string instruments

In Kathak performers today generally draw their lineage from four major schools of Kathak: the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, the Lucknow dance gharana, the Benares gharana and the Raigarh gharana
The Lucknow gharana remains the most popular throughout the country. However, in recent time the Atrauli-Jaipur gharana has caught up and today most performers throughout India perform techniques belonging to both styles. With amalgamation of the techniques and poses from other dance forms, the purity of the movements and gestures may be diluted or modified along with the contemporary trends. Raigarh gharana is famous for its own distinctive composition and thousands of followers.