n the latter half of the Twentieth Century, instrumental music suddenly surged ahead and became almost equal in prestige to vocal rendition. It had long been treated in our musical literature as secondary to vocal music. The idea was challenged for the first time in the post-colonial era.

Many said that it was because on the international scale the nonverbal nature of the musical expression made it easier for music to be appreciated. In vocal music, the listeners were led astray in wanting to understand the lyrics. This distraction did not allow the listeners a total immersion in the musical experience.

As it was, instrumental music became the focal point during the colonial period because instrumental music was the primary musical expression in Europe during the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries and because the lyrics being in local dialects were thought to be a barrier in receiving the full impact of the performance.

Consciously or unconsciously, taking advantage of this change in preference, Indian instrumentalists Pandit Ravi Shanker and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan started claiming space for themselves in the West and in the course of time became cult figures. A consequence of their popularity in India and Pakistan was a greater appreciation of instrumentalist music. It soon became fashionable among the emerging classes that propagated a certain cultural image of the country in the West. Ustad Vilatat Khan became its biggest beneficiary as people back home started listening to the sitar and he was undoubtedly one of the best if not the best among its proponents.

In Pakistan, Ustad Sharif Khan, was sought out and hoisted as the greatest sitar player of the country. He started playing in concerts as a solo sitar player rather than an instrumentalist who was supposed to offer interval pieces in the prospering film industry.

The contribution of Ustad Vilayat Hussain Khan’s family’s in the evolution of the sitar is so substantial that it is no exaggeration to say that the present-day sitar, both in its shape and style, owes a great deal to their persistent dedication. The beginnings of the sitar have been shrouded in mythological speculation but as in most other cases its present form is the result of a long evolutionary process based on the musical requirements and the demands of creativity. It became an instrument that could stand on its own, probably in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. As Raza Khani and Maseet Khani became the most accepted styles of playing, it also signalled the rise of the sitar to the status of a solo instrument.

The contribution of Ustad Vilayat Hussain Khan’s family’s in the evolution of the sitar is so substantial that it is no exaggeration that the present-day sitar, both in its shape and style, owes a great deal to their persistent dedication.

Ustad Sharif Khan was born in Hissar, which is now in Haryana, probably in the third decade of the Twentieth Century. After dabbling with the tabla and harmonium, he became a musician at the court of the maharaja of Poonch. He followed the path treaded by his father Ustad Rahim Buksh Khan who, too, was associated with the state of Poonch, and according to some was the ustad of the maharaja himself. Some of the famous ustads of the past, like Qutab Khan, Badal Khan and Qaim Hussain Khan, belonged to same family.

A virtuoso himself, Ustad Rahim Khan was from a family of vocalists. However, he had switched to the string instruments and became an outstanding instrumentalist under the tutelage of Ustad Imdad Khan, the grandfather of Ustad Vilayat Khan. Ustad Sharif Khan became a shagird of to Ustad Inayat Khan, the son of Imdad Khan and the father of Ustad Vilayat Khan.

Ustad Sharif Khan spent long hours mastering the very difficult art of playing the veena. Nobody in his family had been a veena player but when he was taunted by the nephew of Ustad Abdul Aziz Beenkar that it was almost impossible to play the vichitra veena, he took up the challenge. The balance of both hands and the technique to be applied had immense differences in the art of playing the two instruments but he switched from the one to the other with seeming ease. The graces in particular that are so characteristics of the veena found their way when he took to playing the sitar seriously. These meendhs on the sitar expanded the musical possibilities inherent in the instrument. It can be said without fear of contradiction that no other sitar player has been able to achieve it.

For Ustad Sharif Khan, the going was much tougher in Pakistan. He had established himself as a sitar player before Partition but the lukewarm response and lack of appreciation of classical music made him look for other avenues to meet both ends. The film was the only platform that could pay him enough to survive and continue with his passion of exploring the musical range of both the sitar and the veena. He was initially associated with Pandit Amarnath, and after Partition found creative affinity with Khurshid Anwar, for whom he played the sitar and the veena in numerous compositions.

Struggling to keep economically solvent in a society with only a qualified acceptance for music cost him dearly. He died in 1980 at the prime of his creative life.

The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore.