This is a Tribute to the master of Shehnai, Bismillah Khan, who left us on August 21, 2006 in Varanasi, India.
The legendary Indian shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahib (born 21 March 1917) is the third classical musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna (in 2001), the highest civilian honour in India. The term "Ustad" (Muslim) or "Pandit" (Hindu) in relation to Indian classical music implies Master or Guru. Bismillah Khan is perhaps single handedly responsible for making the shehnai a famous classical instrument.
His ancestors were court musicians in the princely state of Dumraon in Bihar and he trained under his uncle, the late Ali Bux `Vilayatu, a shehnai player attached to Benares's Vishwanath Temple. He brought the shehnai to the center stage of Indian music with his concert in the Calcutta All India Music Conference in 1937. It was Khan Sahib who poured his heart out into Raga Kafi from the Red Fort on the eve of Indias first Republic Day ceremony.
Khan has honorary doctorates from the Banaras Hindu University and Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. He has been awarded the Sangeet Natak Academi Award, the Tansen Award of the Madhya Pradesh government and also the prestigious Padma Vibhushan.
Despite his fame, Khan's lifestyle retains its old world Benares charm. His chief mode of transport is still the cycle rickshaw. A man of tenderness, he believes in remaining private, and that musicians are supposed to be heard and not seen. He is a pious Shia Muslim and also, like many Indian musicians regardless of creed, a devotee of Mother Saraswati.
