Background
Khan was born 1937 in Alwar in the seventh generation of rudra veena players in his family.
Khan was born 1937 in Alwar in the seventh generation of rudra veena players in his family.
Khan performed in the style dhrupad and was described as the best living rudra veena player in India by The Hindu. His ancestors were royal musicians in the courts of Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, and Jaipur, Rajasthan in the 18th century. His great-grandfather Rajab Ali Khan was head of the court musicians in Jaipur and owned a village land holding.
Khan"s father Sadiq Ali Khan worked as a musician for the Alwar court and for the Nawab of Rampur for 35 years.
Khan grew up in a musical surrounding and was taught the Beenkar gharana (stylistic school of rudra veena playing) of Jaipur and vocals for fifteen years. Khan was one of a few active musicians who played the rudra veena and the last surviving master of one of the four schools of dhrupad, the Khandar school.
He performed in many countries, including Australia, the United States, Afghanistan, and Italy and several other European countries, and conducted music courses in the United States. Khan worked at All India Radio, taught the sitar in the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts at the University of Delhi for 17 years, and continued to train students privately after his retirement.
Khan criticized the lack of willingness among Indians to study the rudra veena and has more foreign than Indian students.
He was described as the best living rudra veena player in India by The Hindu and lived in Delhi. Khan died on 14 June 2011 in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.