Ustad Asad Ali Khan

Dhrupad Hindustani Rudra Veena

Ustad Asad Ali Khan

3 minute read

Ustad Asad Ali Khan (1 December 1937 – 14 June 2011) was one of the last great masters of the rudra veena, carrying forward the intricate Khandarbani tradition. Born in Alwar, Rajasthan into a seventh-generation beenkar family, he was trained rigorously from age six by his father, Ustad Sadiq Ali Khan. Rising to prominence with unmatched technical precision and meditative depth, he became known as the last true exponent of the ancient rudra veena tradition.

Awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2008 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1977, Khan’s career featured numerous national broadcasts, concerts, and international tours, sharing the veena’s rare timbre with audiences in Europe, America, Afghanistan, and beyond. He served as faculty at Delhi University and All India Radio, and later at Bharatiya Kala Kendra, while also teaching privately. Collaborating in solo recitals and lecture-demonstrations, he became known for astonishing alap, jor, and jhala passages that highlighted the veena’s spiritual resonance.

A devoted guru, Ustad Asad Ali Khan’s legacy lives on through disciples like his son Zaki Haidar, German-born Carsten Wicke, French-Tunisian Heikel Ben Mlouka, and India’s Jyoti Hegde—who has performed at the Darbar Festival, bringing the rudra veena tradition to new audiences and contexts. His insistence on rigorous technique, tonal purity, and preservation of Khandarbani repertoire ensured the survival of a nearly extinct instrument. Today, his students continue to evoke his spiritual artistry on international stages, safeguarding the veena’s sacred legacy for future generations.

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Pandit Ram Mallick & Samit Mallick | Dhrupad | Full Concert

Recorded at Darbar Festival 2017, on 11th November, at Lilian Bayliss Studio, Sadler's Wells, London. Musicians: - Pandit Ram Kumar Mallick (Dharbanga Dhrupad) - Samit Mallick (Dharbanga Dhrupad) - Surdarshan Chana (Jori) - Seetal Dhadyalla (Tanpura) - Keertan Reha (Tanpura) The Darbhanga tradition of dhrupad gayaki combines melody, rhythm and poetry to create a powerful style. It follows two schools of dhrupad syllables - the Khandarvani and Gauharvani that synthesize the poetry and melody into an astounding interpretation of dhrupad through intense rhythmic elaboration. Pandit Ram Kumar Mallick and Samit Mallick are leading exponents of this gharana. In this Director’s Cut concert, they present two morning ragas – Lalit and Bhairav. Lalit is elaborated with a patient alap that gradually reveals its texture, first in the lower octave and then unfolds one note at a time over the middle octave. With a combination of Khandarvani and Gauharvani syllables, a linear pulse is introduced wherein, ample emphasis is laid on the lower tetra chord - the hot-bed on which Lalit unfurls its wings for flight. The pulse quickens, introducing the jod. Pandit Mallick’s voice has a husky charm which couples with Samit’s energy and groove to lay out an intricate design of the jhalla in Darbhanga style. Their crisp delivery of the syllables along with heavy-set and meend-based gamaks build the rendition into an intense, condensed body that embodies the raga, technique and soul in apposite measures. The composition in Lalit is set to a 12-beat cycle of Chaar taal. Surdarshan Chana joins in with a powerful and irresistibly mystique sound of the jori. His highly intuitive and poised accompaniment transforms the listener’s experience into one of transcendence. With spontaneous improvisation of the poetry around energetic rhythmic structures interwoven into the 12-beat cycle, the Mallicks make this piece immersive for the mind and soul. This is followed by a dhamar in the same raga in 14 beats. The Mallicks give a glowing and extraordinary rendition of this composition with a potent combination of diligent vocal ornamentations and laykari. The next raga, Bhairav, is first expanded in the same format as before, only this time, they stick to brevity and let go of the jhalla in the introductory section. The composition in a 10-beat cycle of Sool taal is conditioned with stately delivery of lyrics in buoyant gamaks over a primordial edifice of pure notes and dramatic delivery. Chana’s support is unfaltering and steady. He disarms with dynamism as he blends with the deeply rhythmic nature of the Darbhanga delivery and softens his thekas according to the demand of the vocals. As artistic director of Darbar Sandeep Virdee puts it, the enormity and diversity of Indian classical music is such that it is possible for us to present just the tip of the iceberg in one festival. But the highly evolved and remarkably transcendental Dhrupad is the genre that steals everyone’s heart every year.