Gharana · Lablypedia

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.

Background

Gharana is a lineage which is biological (often patrilineal, father-son, etc.) initially and grows into a disciple chain (referred to by some traditions as "silsila". The chain of disciples and their disciples spreads over generations and is referred to as guru-shishya parampara. The concept is based on the prevalence of performance arts being family traditions in South Asia. Nowadays, the term connotes what Ashok Ranade describes as the "comprehensive musico-aesthetic ideology changing from gharana to gharana."

Etymology

Scholars claim the term gharana" comes from the Hindustani word "ghara," rooted from the Sanskrit word "griha," meaning family, dynasty, or home.

The association of locations with gharanas serve two purposes. Primarily, gharanas' locations were understood to indicate the place of origin of heredity performing musicians. For example, Kirana being the birthplace of Bande Ali Khan and, by extension, his gharana. Secondarily, gharanas' locations were understood to indicate the location of the performing musician's patron. For example, Rampur being the court in which Inayat Hussain Khan served and made a name for himself.

History

The gharana system was rooted in the guru–shishya tradition. Most of the surviving gharanas were initially based in Delhi until the divestment from the arts by Aurangzeb during the second half of the 17th Century. Performing musicians and their families immigrated from Delhi to other nearby courts seeking patronage. As a result, these musicians came to be associated with princely states such as Gwalior, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Patiala, and Rampur.

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Prominent gharanas

Vocal traditions

Khyal gharanas

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 (singing style). There are ten prominent khyal gharanas, and they are:

Dhrupad traditions

The dhrupad tradition includes four original styles:

Dagarbani ("sadharani geeti")
Gauharbani gharana|Gauharbani
Khandarbani gharana
Nauharbani gharana

Today's surviving dhrupad traditions are descendants of the aforementioned four styles.

Dagar gharana, founded by the Dagar family
Bishnupur gharana, founded by Kirtankars in West Bengal (13th century)
Darbhanga gharana, founded in Darbhanga, Bihar
Dumraon Gharana, Buxar, Bihar founded by Dumraon Maharaj, and musician Pandit Ghanarang Dubey
Bettiah gharana, founded in Bettiah, Bihar
Talwandi gharana
Mewati gharana, founded by Wahid Khan (Beenkar) and Ghagge Nazir Khan. Descended from Khandarbani gharana.
Kalpi gharana

Thumri traditions

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 (mid-20th century) and Savita Devi.

Instrumental traditions

Tabla traditions

The following are the six widely accepted gharanas (ordered based on chronology of founding):

Delhi gharana is the oldest of the tabla gharanas
Ajrara gharana is an offshoot of and closely associated with the Delhi Gharana
Lucknow gharana has rhythmic development through Kathak
Benares gharana
Punjab gharana, popularized by Alla Rakha and Zakir Husain, developed through its original Pakhavaj repertoire
Farrukhabad gharana is the youngest accepted tabla gharana, and an offshoot of all of the Gharanas, featuring their main concepts

Sitar traditions

Etawah gharana
Maihar gharana
Senia gharana
Indore gharana (Beenkar gharana)
Jaipur-Atrauli gharana
Mewati gharana

Sarod traditions

Senia-Maihar gharana
Senia-Shahjahanpur gharana
Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharana
Senia-Bangash gharana

Other instruments

Bishnupur gharana (Dhrupad, Rudra Veena, Sitar, Esraj)
Sopori-Sufiana Gharana (Santoor)

Dance traditions

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 (born in the courts of the Kachwaha Rajput kings, the Nawab of Oudh, and Varanasi respectively.) and the Raigarh gharana (born in the court of Maharaja Chakradhar Singh of Raigarh.)

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.