A PRESENTATION ON USTAD BISMILLAH KHAN IF WANT THE PPT WITHOUT NAME MAIL ME AT VANSHIKA19146ARMYPUBLICSCHOOL@GMAIL.COM

1. USTAD
BISMILLAH
KHAN
BIOGRAPHY
VANSHIKA TOMAR | 9F | ENGLISH | APSDC

2. CONTENTS
 CHILDHOOD
 UPBRINGING
 EDUCATION
 MAJOR WORKS
 AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
 Personal Life & Legacy
 TRIVIA

3. CHILDHOOD
 BISMILLAH KHAN was born on 21 March 1916 into a family of
traditional Muslim musicians at the town of Dumraon, in Shahabad
district of Bihar and Orissa Province in British India, as the second
son of Paigambar Bux Khan and Mitthanbai. His father was a court
musician employed in the court of Maharaja Keshav Prasad Singh
of Dumraon Estate in Bihar. His grandfather Ustad Salar Hussain
Khan and grandfather Rasool Bux Khan were also musicians in the
Dumraon palace. He was named Qamruddin at birth, to rhyme with
his elder brother's name Shamsuddin. Upon seeing the new born,
his grandfather Rasool Baksh Khan, also a shehnai player, is said to
have exclaimed "Bismillah", or "In the name of Allah", and
thereafter he came to be known by this name.
3

4. UPBRINGING
•At the age of six, he moved to Varanasi in the state of
Uttar Pradesh, to be apprenticed to his maternal
uncle, Ali Bux 'Vilayatu' Khan, a shehnai player
attached to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. At the age
of 14 Bismillah accompanied his uncle to the
Allahabad music conference.
•Though he was a muslim, he still went to temple.
•In 1932, at the age of 16, he entered into an
arranged marriage with a cousin. 4

5. EDUCATION
5
Khan learnt the art of playing shehnai and
mastered it in a short span of time. It is not
farfetched to say that he was the one who
made shehnai a famous classical
instrument with his natural talent and
great devotion.
With his concert in All India Music
Conference in 1937 (at Calcutta), Khan
brought shehnai at the forefront of Indian
classical music. He played so well that his
name got attached to the instrument in no
time.

6. MAJOR WORKS
Khan’s whole life was devoted to playing
shehnai with all his passion - a tradition he
helped in keeping alive in the post
independent India. If it was not for him,
shehnai would have been redundant in the
newly independent India. He made shehnai
one of the most popular musical
instruments from Asia.
6

7. AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
• Khan was bestowed with the
title of ‘Ustad’.
• He earned many accolades like
Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan,
Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri,
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.
• He also got honorary
doctorates from Banaras Hindu
University and Viswa Bharati
University, etc.
7

8. 8
Personal Life & Legacy
Khan was survived by his five daughters,
three sons and many grandchildren and
great grandchildren. He also adopted a
daughter named Dr Soma Ghosh. She is a
famous Hindustani shastriya sangeet
exponent.
He died in 2006 due to cardiac arrest. He
was buried in a national ceremony along
with his shehnai at Fatemain burial ground,
Varanasi.

9. 9
TRIVIA
 His burial ceremony received the national pride of 21 gun
salute from the indian army.
 Khan did not generally take students under him and the only
people that he associated with in that capacity were S. Ballesh
and his own sons - Nazim Hussain and Nayyar Hussain.