Ustad Vilayat Khan

Ustad Vilayat Khan was born in 1928 in Gauripur, Bengal, into the Imdadkhani gharana — one of the oldest and most distinguished sitar lineages. His father, Ustad Inayat Khan, was one of the great sitar masters of the early twentieth century and died when Vilayat was eight years old. Vilayat was then raised and taught by his mother and uncle, absorbing the full Imdadkhani tradition.

His genius announced itself early — by his late teens he was being recognised as the most gifted sitar player of his generation. But his contribution would be less the mastery of what existed than the transformation of what was possible. Through the 1950s and 60s he developed what he called the gayaki ang — the "vocal style" approach to sitar playing, in which the instrument was played to imitate the qualities of the human voice: its ability to sustain notes, its gamaka, its emotional directness.

He received the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, and was repeatedly nominated for the Bharat Ratna — which he declined, on the grounds that a musician should not be placed in the same category as political figures. He died in 2004.

Vilayat Khan's greatest contribution was the development of the gayaki ang — the approach to sitar playing that prioritises vocal qualities over purely instrumental ones. Before Vilayat Khan, sitar playing was dominated by the gatkari style, with its emphasis on rhythmic patterns and the instrument's percussive qualities. Vilayat Khan shifted the emphasis: he tuned his instrument differently, modified his string setup, and developed techniques that prioritised sustained, expressive melodic phrases over rhythmic display.

The result was a transformation of the instrument. His sitar could sustain a note, control its dynamics, and execute the subtle glides and ornaments of vocal music in a way that had not previously been possible. His recordings — particularly of ragas like Yaman, Bhairav, Bhimpalasi, and Bhairavi — remain the definitive instrumental interpretations of those ragas.