Hafiz Ali Khan

He was born in 1888 at Gwalior, a son of the sarod player Nanneh Khan, and grew up in a community of sarod players; it is likely that he studied with his father and a number of his father's proximate disciples.¹ He later took lessons from his cousin Abdulla Khan, his nephew Mohammad Amir Khan, and finally the beenkar Wazir Khan of Rampur — a direct descendant, it is said, of Tansen through the line of Tansen's daughter; Allauddin Khan of Maihar was a fellow pupil of Wazir Khan in the same period.¹ He is also said to have studied dhrupad and thumri in Mathura and with Bhaiya Ganpatrao.¹

His regal appearance and electrifying charisma made him one of the most sought-after musicians of his time — no mean feat for an instrumentalist in an era dominated by vocal music.¹ While still a court musician in Gwalior he undertook numerous trips to Bengal, performed at major music festivals and taught a number of disciples there; his music found generous patrons in two Bengali aristocrats, Raychand Boral and Manmatha Ghosh, both of whom studied with him.¹ In the Viceregal circles of colonial India he was also appreciated for his unique, stylised renditions of "God Save the King" on the sarod.¹ The occasional critic observed that his imagination was often closer to the semi-classical thumri idiom than to the austere dhrupad style prevalent at the time.¹

Hafiz Ali Khan died in December 1972, at the age of 84; the article's text, citing his SwarGanga profile, places his death in New Delhi, while its infobox gives Mumbai — the split is recorded here as the article gives it.¹ A road in Delhi, the second entry road to Nizamuddin railway station, is named after him — one of only three capital roads named for artists, after Tansen and Thyagaraja.¹

• ¹
• ²