Janey waley tera khuda Hafiz - indiia mourn Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan
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Khan passes away
Agencies
Bismillah Khan, one of India's best-known musicians and a master exponent of
the wind instrument 'shehnai', died of heart failure at the age of 90 on
Monday, doctors and his aide said, reports Reuters.
He is credited with elevating the status of shehnai music-considered
auspicious for Hindu marriage ceremonies and street processions-to a new
level, reports AFP.
A one-day national mourning was declared in honour of the legend who had
the rare distinction of playing the 'shehnai' as the Indian flag was
unfurled at the historic Red Fort in New Delhi to mark the country's
independence from Britain in 1947.
On Monday, flags flew at half-mast at government buildings while schools
and government offices were closed in Uttar Pradesh, where Khan lived and
died in his hometown of Varanasi.
The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, led the country in mourning Khan.
'A true symbol of our composite culture, Khan Sahib, through his
mellifluous rendering of the shehnai, showed us that while God may manifest
himself in many forms, piety finds its true expression through music,' Singh
said in a statement.
'Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahib was a great son of India.'
Khan, who was awarded India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna,
in 2001, was born into a family of musicians who played for royalty.
He transfixed generations of audiences across the world with his soulful
rendition of classical music on the 'shehnai', which is played during
marriages as well as religious events.
Khan, suffering from age-related problems, was admitted to a hospital in
Varanasi more than a week ago.
'He had shown improvement over the past two days, but continued to feel
very weak,' Khan's personal secretary Syed Javed Ahmed told Reuters.
The musician is survived by five sons, three daughters and a large number
of grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Khan's ancestors were court musicians in the eastern state of Bihar. He
trained under his uncle, Ali Bux, a shehnai player at a temple in Varanasi.
'So sweet was his shehnai, no one could play like him and no one will be
able to play like him ever,' Lata Mangeshkar, India's most famous singer,
told a TV news channel.
The maestro had said the shehnai mattered to him more than anything.
'By the grace of God, when this (shehnai) is in my hands, all the wealth
of the world could be brought to me, and I'd say: Get about your business,
take it away,' Khan said in a TV interview last year.
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