Ustad Afaq Hussain Khan (centre) with (L to R) Probir Kumar Mittra, Ilmas Hussain Khan, Christian "Layal" Lacourieux, Joost Vrinte, Gilles Bourquin, Jim Kippen, Dr Ramji Varma, and Pankaj Chaudhury. Lucknow, 1986.

 

The origins of tabla, and Bakhshu Khan and his sons

When Robert S. Gottlieb interviewed Wajid Hussain Khan in July 1971, he taped an unidentified member of the Lucknow lineage reading from the family shijra, or genealogy. He gave me a copy of that interview just a few years ago. The problem was that Gottlieb, who spoke no Urdu (or cognate language), failed to realize the importance of that information, which differed significantly from the widely-circulated printed accounts. Moreover, he never had it translated. In my own research I gathered information from many sources within the family, none more important than Habib Raza Khan, a wonderful old sarangi player from Calcutta who had close links to both Lucknow and Delhi tabla/sarangi families. Interestingly, my shijra matched exactly the one Gottlieb taped. Additionally, the following statement, spoken from Wajid Hussain's perspective, preceded the list of names:

My forefather came to Lucknow in the reign of Asif-ud-Daulah. My forefather's name was Bakhshuji. From the region of Qasur in West Punjab came two brothers: one remained in Delhi and the other settled in Lucknow. The latter gained employment in the court of Asif-ud-Daulah.

This helps to establish a timeline: Asif-ud-Daulah reigned from 1775 to 1797, and on moving his court to Lucknow from Faizabad he not only took with him legions of court musicians and dancers but also attracted many more who were fleeing the crumbling Mughal capital of Delhi on the promise of lavish new patronage. Furthermore, Wajid Hussain's account challenges the many stories that insist Bakhshu Khan arrived in Lucknow with his brother Modhu Khan, whom Benares musicians claim was the teacher of the apical figure Ram Sahai. In my book, The Tabla of Lucknow (Cambridge University Press, 1980: 81-82) I showed that Modhu and his brother Zahid arrived much later (ca. 1830) direct from Jhajjar (just west of Delhi) and were part of a different lineage. Other accounts within the family speak of Bakhshu and Makkhu as brothers. If Makkhu was the brother who went to Delhi, then he was likely the Makkhu of Delhi mentioned by Karam Imam in his work Madan al-Musiqi (late 1850s/1860s) as "an able exponent of the old playing style". According to the Delhi tabla gharana's own shijra, Makkhu married the sister of Shitab Ali and Gulab Ali (great grandsons of Sudhar Khan, tabla's purported inventor). Makkhu was in turn the great grandfather of Natthu Khan (1875-1940). For further details of the Delhi shijra, read my article on the genealogy of the Delhi gharana.

Asif ud-Daulah,
Nawab of Lucknow from 1775 to 1797

Bakhsu Khan, like many other hereditary musicians in northern India — most particularly tabla and sarangi players — was a Dhadhi (a category that was later likely subsumed under the general rubric of Mirasi). Also, like the Delhi lineage, Modhu Khan's lineage, and the tabla-sarangi lineages of the Punjab, Bakhshu Khan's family was Shia. It is highly likely that there is a more ancient connection between them all. In brief, my theory is that tabla emerged in the early years of the 18th century in the Punbaj hill chieftaincies in communities of professional Shia musicians and entertainers, and was for the next 150 years primarily if not exclusively associated with the nautch and its related genres. Nautch spread quickly to various centres of patronage in northern India, but it was the tabla's inherent adaptability and flexibility that allowed it to prosper in other contexts. After all, no other drum could imitate pakhavaj, dholak, or naqqara as efficiently as the tabla.

Bakhshu Khan was a respected player in his day, renowned for his gats (almost certainly pieces originally associated with specific dance movements). Karam Imam used him several times in Madan al-Musiqi as a yardstick by which to judge the competence of his contemporaries. According to Imam his two sons were Mammu Khan and Salari Miyan. The Lucknow shijra does not identify Salari Miyan as a son, but rather as a disciple. Kesri Khan is stated to be Mammu Khan's younger brother. Both Bakhshu and Mammu are said to have been the teachers of Salari Miyan and "Haji" Vilayat Ali Khan (apical figure in the Farukhabad gharana).

The sons and grandsons of Mammu Khan

Kesri had no sons. Mammu, however, had two: Mammad Khan and Najju Khan. We know Mammad Khan died around 1879. Mammad (short for Muhammad) is almost certainly the same Muhammad Ji mentioned by Abdul Halim Sharar in his early 20th century reminiscences gathered under the title Guzeshta Lakhnau (Past Lucknow). Around 1870 a Maratha gentleman, not content with being entertained by the finest singers of the day, disclosed the real reason for his visit to Lucknow:

"The real reason for my coming here is to sing a tarana, with Muhammad Ji accompanying me on the tabla." Muhammad Ji was immediately sent for and the Maratha's singing and Muhammad Ji's playing were much appreciated and applauded by all present. Finally, the Maratha admitted, "I have been everywhere but I have never heard a more accomplished tabla player." (Sharar, Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture. London: Paul Elek, 1975: 139).

Both Mammad and Najju had three sons. Mammad Khan's sons were Munne Khan, Nadir Hussain, and Abid Hussain; Najju's were Zakir Hussain (alias Zakkan Khan), Chuttan Khan, and Ladle Khan. None of Najju's sons themselves had sons.

Munne Khan (d.1890) was by all accounts a masterful player who died in his prime. This left the lineage in a crisis, with no one to step into the role of khalifa (head, authority). Nadir Hussain was apparently competent, but not highly skilled. Abid Hussain (1867-1936) was not ready. Hirendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, in his The Musicians of India (1929: 12) described things thus:

Abid began practising Tabla under the instruction of his father when he was only seven years of age; but he lost his father at the age of twelve. On the death of his father he received lessons under the direction of his brother Mooneh Khan for eleven years, when the latter died. The death of his brother made Abid so earnest in preserving his family reputation that he began practising Tabla daily for about thirteen hours. Practising thus consecutively for twelve years he came out of home and travelled throughout India, acquiring exceptional fame and fortune.

Abid Hussain, from The Musicians of India, 1929

Abid Hussain was arguably the greatest player of his era, though unfortunately no recordings were ever made of him (though there are claims that one exists!). He acquired considerable wealth, which was uncommon for a tabla player in those days: by the early 1930s he apparently owned four houses, and had his own horse-drawn carriage. (The wealth was frittered away after his death, and Independence and Partition were partly responsible for the loss of family property.) Abid Hussain left behind him a great legacy in his most prominent students: his nephew Wajid Hussain Khan, Jahangir Khan of Indore, Hirendra Kumar Ganguly (alias Hiru Babu) of Calcutta, and Biru Misra of Benares. His reputation was such, and his performances at the All India Music Conferences so impressive, that he was a natural choice to be the first Professor of Tabla at the Marris College of Music, which opened in Lucknow in 1926 (and which subsequently became the Bhatkhande Music College, now a University). One of the first students of the College, S.K. Chaubey, wrote rather poetically of Abid Hussain:

"In our young days we were fortunate that we knew Lucknow's great Tabla-player, Abid Hussain, who was respected and feared by his contemporaries. He played wonderfully with an effortless ease and charm of his own. I can conjure up a slim, graceful figure bending over his incomparable Tabla with the gallantry of a lover and a courtier, producing sounds that turned to music the moment they were born."

The Silsila of Abid Hussain

In many ways, the concept of silsila is of more practical importance than gharana: gharana is a broad, polysemic rubric that subsumes notions of family, students, style, and tradition, and as such it is always contentious; silsila, on the other hand, implies a teaching lineage, and in reality one gharana may have more than one silsila (as Lowell Lybarger discovered in his excellent dissertation on the Punjab tabla gharana, and as is also clearly evident in the Benares tabla gharana). When Abid Hussain assumed the mantle of khalifa of the Lucknow tabla lineage it meant that succession would subsequently pass through his students and not the son of Munne Khan. Munne Khan had one son, Bahadur Hussain, who in turn had one son, Nayab Khan, who in turn had two sons, Irshad and Intizar Hussain. As far as I know, no one is left in that sub-lineage.

Abid Hussain had no son. His older brother Nadir Hussain had three: Raza Hussain (whose son was Mustafa Hussain), Wajid Hussain (whose son was Afaq Hussain), and Sajjad Hussain (who had no son). Of the three Wajid Hussain showed exceptional promise and became the premier disciple of Abid Hussain. To solidify the connection between them, Abid Hussain gave his daughter Kazmi Begum to Wajid Hussain in marriage (first cousin marriages being preferred in these endogamous clans).

Wajid Hussain (1900-78) was first and foremost a soloist who relished exceedingly difficult stroke combinations and dazzling speed of articulation. He maintained rigorous practice his entire life, and he played so loudly that the joke was one could hear him a mile away in the bazaar! His tabla playing was the subject of a transcription and analysis by Robert S. Gottlieb in 1971, as part of Gottlieb's book The Major Traditions of North Indian Drumming (Munich: Emil Katzbichler, 1977).

It is my contention that Gottlieb made numerous mistakes in both his transcription and analysis. I wrote a substantial essay in the journal Asian Music (33, 2, spring/summer 2002: 111-74), and would refer readers to that article. Gottlieb spent two days with Wajid Hussain, and did not play tabla. With the help of Wajid Hussain's grandson, Ilmas Hussain, I retranscribed Wajid Hussain's solo and gave a more nuanced analysis of his performance and its meaning.

Wajid Hussain in 1971

The following is an excerpt from a solo in jhaptal (10 counts) by Wajid Hussain, probably from AIR Lucknow and dating from the 1960s. It is a gat-qaida replete with variations. He begins at a fast pace, and the bols are extremely difficult to play. He then doubles it: the clarity and power are astonishing.

Wajid Hussain's son, Afaq Hussain (1930-90) was my teacher. He was a kind, quiet, shy man who struggled with depression, and whose illness was misunderstood or misinterpreted by many of his contemporaries. Nevertheless, he was widely acknowledged as a true master: exceptionally knowledgeable, technically supreme, and inherently musical — a musician's musician! He played with such sweetness and balance of sound that people quickly forgot Wajid Hussain's power, speed, and volume and associated instead Afaq Hussain's subtle refinement of sound as the quintessential Lucknow tabla quality.

These qualities are on display in the following extract from a recording made by Jnan Prakash Ghosh in July 1958. These are the opening moments, as Afaq Hussain works his way into a classic peshkar.

Wajid Hussain once hosted a feast in honour of his friend, the great Habibuddin Khan of Ajrara. Habibuddin requested that Afaq, who was about 10, play for him. He cried when he heard the boy, and said: "It is just as if Abid Hussain had come back to life and were playing before me." Afaq had begun lessons with his grandfather, but he was just six when Abid Hussain died.

Afaq Hussain in 1988

In the 1950s Afaq Hussain left Lucknow for Calcutta where he quickly established a reputation for himself. He made several recordings, including the long solo recorded by Jnan Prakash Ghosh in 1958. He caught the attention of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and, in particular, Amir Khan, with whom he made several recordings for EMI that have become classics in the history of Hindustani music recordings (these include rags Megh, Lalit, Hansadhvani, and Malkauns). During this period he traveled widely and played with all the great masters. He gathered around him a circle of devoted disciples, none more devoted than Bhupal Ray Choudhuri (who was one of my key informants). However, the politics of the Calcutta music world did not work in Afaq Hussain's favour, and in 1971 he was forced to return to Lucknow where he took positions first at the Kathak Kendra and subsequently at the Doordarshan Kendra (TV station).

I met Afaq Hussain and his family in January 1980. My work with him is well-documented in The Tabla of Lucknow. Initially he was suspicious of me (it didn't help that I was being followed around town by the CID (police), who in turn were curious to know why I had come to live and do research in Lucknow). One evening he arranged to meet me at the home of kathak dancer Vikram Singh: I played for him, but he stopped me after about 7 seconds and told me if I wanted to learn I had to change my technique and begin again from scratch. For 9 months he gave me a very hard time, but I think my sheer determination earned his trust. In September 1981 he tied the ganda badhan (thread typing ceremony), and from that point onwards I was part of the inner circle. Afaq Hussain's wife, Zeenat Jahan ("Mummy"), sons Ilmas and Ilyas, and his daughter Rana, as well as his live-in disciple from Calcutta, Probir Kumar Mittra, all welcomed me as a family member. I regard it as a great privilege to have learned from such a master, and to have such a strong and close connection to the family.

Afaq Hussain's older son is Ilmas Hussain (1959-) and his much younger son is Ilyas Hussain (1977-). Ilmas is both my guru-bhai and my ustad: he is the current khalifa of the Lucknow tabla gharana.

Afaq Hussain was living in Calcutta through most of Ilmas's childhood, and so Ilmas learned from his grandfather, Wajid Hussain, until the latter's death in 1978. He combines the great qualities of his grandfather and father (though, like his great-grandfather Abid Hussain he is a left-handed player), and he has inherited a vast knowledge of compositions, especially gats and relas plus the highly specialized techniques required to present them (genres recognized by many connoisseurs as the cream of the Lucknow tabla repertory). He is particularly strong in dance accompaniment, partly because he worked at the Lucknow Kathak Kendra for many years, and partly because he inherited the old techniques and stroke patterns that were expressly designed for this role (and which are different from regular tabla strokes). Following Afaq Hussain's death in 1990, Ilmas took over the job of staff accompanist at the Doordarshan Kendra.

Ilmas Hussain in 1988

The following audio clip is taken from a solo performance in tintal by Ilmas Hussain, recorded for my book, The Tabla of Lucknow. Sarangi accompaniment is by Dildar Khan.

Recently, Ilmas completed an Indian Council for Cultural Relations three-year posting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2003–06). He is now back in Lucknow, actively teaching and performing. His son, Amir (1995-) is learning tabla well, and has already performed on stage.

Ilyas began learning tabla seriously under his father in the late 1980s, and since 1990 he has studied under his older brother Ilmas. Currently he remains in Lucknow during Ilmas's absence, and is actively seeking a post as a tabla accompanist in one of Lucknow's music institutions.

Ilyas Hussain in 2002

In the video clip below he plays one of Abid Hussain Khan's most famous gats. It is characterized by different settings of the bol "dhine taka" followed towards the end by "dhirakita". There are changes in lay (surface rhythmic density), and the piece ends akal (just before the sam, or the first count of the cycle — the sam is indicated by Ilmas who says "aah"). Accompanying him with a lahra (cyclical melody) on harmonium, in the music room of their house in Lucknow, is his brother Ilmas Hussain Khan.

Listen to Ilmas Hussain play this composition...

Born in Calcutta in 1960, Probir Kumar Mittra learned initially under his father, Santosh Kumar Mittra, who in turn was a disciple of the great Hiru Babu. Santosh Mittra insisted that if his son wanted to learn the essence of Lucknow technique and repertoire then he needed to travel to Lucknow. Thus, from 1979 until Afaq Hussain's death in 1990, Probir was the closest of the disciples of the Lucknow gharana; he was also a wonderful friend to me, to many others who lived in Lucknow during that time, and to many who have visited India since. Indeed, for most of the 1980s he lived in Afaq Hussain's house, learning tabla as well as performing all manner of household duties, just as disciples used to do in the past. Later, Probir became a prominent accompanist at the Kathak Kendra in New Delhi. He also spent three years in Mauritius, sponsored by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and has traveled to dozens of countries worldwide to teach and perform.

Probir Kumar Mittra, Toronto 2004

In the following video excerpt filmed in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, by Margaret Walker, Probir plays a tukra as an opening uthan statement in jhaptal (10 counts).