His father, the late Ustad Abdul Karim Khan was a distinguished sitarist at his time, and his grandfather who was awarded the "Sitar Ratna", Chhote Rahimat Khan was accredited for adding the base octave to the sitar and for modifying the three-string sitar to the seven-string instrument that we have today.
He belongs to the sixth generation of musicians from the Gwalior Gharana. Khan is the younger brother of Ustad Bale Khan and Chhote Rahimat Khan and has a twin brother, Ustad Shafique Khan, also a sitarist. Khan was born in Dharwad and started playing the sitar at the age of nine.
He passed his music exams from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, Mumbai and completed his graduation in philosophy at the University of Goa.
Rafique Khan currently works at All India Radio, Mangalore. He is the President of the music organization Sangeet Bharati Foundation, Mangalore and also runs his own Academy of Hindustani Music at Mangalore.
Khan has toured across the nation and the world, performing at various music festivals. He has been rated as a "top" grade artiste by All India Radio and has had four of his recitals aired on their national programmes. He has performed at the "Soorya Festival" founded by Soorya Krishnamoorthy in India, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, Muscat, Singapore and Switzerland. He has also played at the Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Festival and has played alongside Grammy award winning slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt in Mangalore and Bangalore. Khan has also toured across Italy, Slovenia and France performing at Hindustani Classical Music festivals.
