Vilayat Khan

Born in Gouripur in East Bengal—later Bangladesh—during August 1922, Vilayat Khan ranked among the foremost Hindustani musicians of the twentieth century, a date he himself verified in 1993 despite conflicting references elsewhere. His grandfather Imdad Khan, who lived from 1848 to 1920, and his father Enayat Khan, born in 1894 and deceased in 1938 (spelled Inayat Khan by Vilayat), had both earned renown as performers, passing their artistry to Vilayat and his younger brother Imrat Khan within the Imdadkhani gharana, named for their grandfather.

Initial lessons came from his father until the latter’s death in 1938, after which his mother Bashiran Begum, grandmother Bande Hussain Khan, and maternal uncle Wahid Khan oversaw further instruction. At roughly the same moment he began cutting 78-rpm discs, an era when he endured pointed and unwelcome comparisons to his father. Over time he cultivated an approach that honored his lineage while asserting an unmistakably personal idiom. Foremost among his additions to the gharana’s lineage was the refinement of a vocal idiom, termed gayaki ang, on the sitar. Although other players of the period likewise pursued instrumental sonorities closer to the singing voice—the universal aspiration of instrumentalists—Vilayat Khan’s success in this regard proved especially striking and provoked widespread excitement.

His technical solutions for the sitar’s inherent limitations proved far-reaching, and his performances sustained an unwavering standard of excellence. An outspoken opponent of mediocrity, he upheld exacting personal principles that occasionally placed him at odds with official institutions. Apart from two notable film projects—the soundtrack Satyajit Ray commissioned for Jalsaghar and the score for the Ismail Merchant–James Ivory production The Guru—his output remained confined to the classical sphere. In essence he preserved rather than extinguished the tradition’s living flame.