MY LIFE

My Life

KHANSAHAB ALLADIYA KHAN

KHANSAHAB ALLADIYA KHAN (1855-1946) is widely regarded as one of the greatest North Indian classical vocalists of the modern period. He achieved great renown as a singer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the Jaipur-Atrauli style that he established continues to be among the most influential idioms of Hindustani music in the country today. He narrated this account of his life to his grandson the Late Azizuddin Khan in the last years of his life and this rare manuscript is now translated with a critical introduction for the modern reader. In it he talks about his early life, his travels, his career as a court singer and of his encounters with other great musicians of his time. This account throws light on the profession of the singer in the golden age of classical music in India, and will be of great interest to musicologists and musicians, cultural historians and sociologists as well as the general reader.

This second revised edition includes several rare photographs; and a translation by Vidushi Shruti Sadolikar Katkar, of an excerpt from a chapter in Govindrao Tembe's biography of Khansahab, in which Tembe describes his style of singing in great detail.

URMILA BHIRDIKAR currently teaches at the Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar.

AMLAN DAS GUPTA teaches at the Department of English, and is Director, School of Cultural Texts and Records, at Jadavpur University.