Alladiya Khan

Birthdays & Anniversaries

10.8.1855 - 16.3.1946

At birth, he was named Ghulam Ahmed, but people began calling him Alladiya [Given by Allah] because he was born in answer to the prayers of his parents who had lost all their earlier children as infants. 

A superlative musician whose singing was marked by grace, power and aristocratic mien, Alladiya Khan created a new style of music which came to be identified as the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana (out of the many styles which were represented in Jaipur in his time). Led by him, the gharana has given voice to hundreds of raga-s. His style of music “made even common raga-s appear more beautiful and full of unexpected twists and turns.... It was full of intricate but beautiful tana-s....” (B.R. Deodhar). The spirit and liveliness of Khan Saheb lives in the music-making of his legatees, though the style itself has undergone mutations in recent times.