Mushtaq Ali Khan - Instruments

Instruments

Mushtaq Ali Khan was an eminent Sitar player of Senia Gharana. He was the only surbahar player of India who used to play the been-ang with three mizrabs and that too, with the pakhawaj as an accompanying instrument only in pure dhrupad style.

In a rare exclusive interview in the Daily Telegraph on the 13 July 1985, Khan Sahab narrated the history of this instrument with historical references in which he has cleared the myth of this instrument . Khan Sahab had his lineage with fifth vani, called Dhandvani named after one of the forefathers. The famous dhrupadiya of Shah Jahans Court, Nayak Dhundhu. It is also called Rasal Vani for its beauty. He said, "… two of my ancestors, Jaggu Khan and Makku Khan. Since Makku Khan was childless, he adopted Waras Ali Khan a great name who learnt the art of playing Been from Bade Mohammed Khan. When my father Ashiq Ali Khan was six years old, my grand father Sadaq Ali Khan, son of Jaggu Khan died so his uncle Waras Ali Khan taught him all inticacies of Beena on the surbahar. That is why we play Surbahar with three Mezrabs. The Surbahar was originally designed to felicitate the playing of Alap . Those days Alap was the exclusive prerogative of the Beenkar. Ghulam Muhammed Khan and his son Sajjad Mohammed Khan the great SurBahar players used to stay at Calcutta in the earliest part of the 20th Century and taught many renowned players including Imdad Khan and Jnanoda Mukherjee. In this instrument two angas played are alap and talparan and that is why the knowledge of pakhawaj is essential to play the Talparan …".