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Rahimat Khan 1860-1922 Ancestral home-Hussain pur. This village later became Husanpur-Lohari, a twin village some twenty miles North West of Muzaffar Nagar, the city and district. The very village was is located about twenty miles away from village Kairana that is situated at North of Delhi, generally known as the part of Barah basti, twelve localities where from the most of the professional musicians of North come. These places produced a number of gifted families of musicians of Pathan origin. But it is not known which family came to Lucknow during the ruling of Sa-adat Ali Khan I (1797-1814). Qawwali singer Ghulam Rasool’s sister is said to be the mother of Shakkar and Makkhan. Perhaps Ghulam Nabi’s sister was the mother of Kadar Bakhsh and Abdullah Khan. Nawab Sa-adat Ali did not have much taste for music, therefore Shakkar Khan’s sons Bade Muhammad and Ahmed Khan went to Rewa while Makkhan Khan’s son Natthan Pir Bakhsh went to Gwalior. Pirbakhsh’s sons Natthu Khan and Gule Imam, who were residing at Husanpur Lohari went to Gwalior along with Haddu-Hassu the sons of Kadar Bakhsh. Kadar Bakhsh Khan is said to have three wives of which one gave birth of Hassu, Haddu, the singers whereas youngest gave birth of Masid Khan the wrestler?. Masid Khan had at least three daughters of which Mije was married to Rehman Bakhsh, the sarangi player from Kandla, Jile was married to Kale Khan, the father of Abdul Karim. Third daughter Habiban was married to same Rehman Bakhsh of Kandla to beget Majid Khan, Hamid Khan and Bashir Khan. Hassu Khan had one son Gule Imam. Haddu Khan had three sons Chhote Muhammad, Haidar and Rahimat. Haddu Khan was at the court of Banda for some years during 1840s, but returned to Gwalior later. After his father’s death Rahimat perhaps stayed some years at Husanpur Lohari and then wandered for a few years throughout North India when he used to earn his living as a street musician. In 1890s, he came into contact with Vishnupant Chhatre (b. 1840-1905/1908) in Varanasi. He engaged Rahimat as a musician in his ‘circus company’ in about 1892 and Khan saheb stayed with him up to 1899. In 1900, Rahimat attended a music conference held at Kathmandu, Nepal under the auspices of the Maharaja. With Vishnupant’s support Rahimat gave recitals in many princely states and at the turn of the century he took up residence at Kurundvad a town state, 16 miles South of Miraj. This fact is confirmed from a speculation that the chiefs of the place Chintaman rao Raghunath (alias Bala Sahib Patwardhan 1850-1876?) and his son Bhalchand rao (Anna saheb), who were he great patrons of music, but there is no evidence in favour of him getting patronized by them. Rahimat is said to lose all interests in giving recitals after the death of Vishnupant, although he was always obliging when asked to sing, e.g. concerts at Wilson College, Bombay. VD Paluskar (1872-1931) was a great admirer of Rahimat Khan as he basically hailed from Kurundwad. He very often presented Khan saheb in the recitals put on by the branches of Gandharva Maha vidyalay. The close proximity of Miraj and Kurundwad gave Abdul Kariim Khan the opportunity of listening to Rahimat Khan and share his music with him. It is the reason why people are of the opinion that Abdul Kariim Khan used to imitate his music. Ustaad Manjii Khan the second son of Ustaad Allaadiyaa Khaan saahib, the legendary pathfinder of Jaipur gharaanaa also was highly influenced by Rahimat Khan’s style. Allaadiyaa khan was unhappy with Manji Khan for his deviation from the tradition. In 1919 Rahimat Khan made a dozen of recordings for the Gramophone Co. at Bombay in the recording sessions that included Baal Gandharv, Master Krishna rao and Sundaraa baai of Poona. Master Krishna rao Phulambrikar mentions in his Marathi book-‘Bolaa Amrit Bolaa’ that Bal Gandharv and he himself accompanied Rahimat Khan saheb on tanpura while recording. Tabla accompaniment was provided by Balwantrao Rukdikar and Rajannaa. According to his observation, Khan saheb behaved like an innocent child. In the place of microphone big horns were placed of which one was for Khan saheb and the other was for the accompanists. While recording, he talked too much that created a great problem. When he was made to listen to his recorded recital he questioned them, ‘who is this second Rahimat Khan?’ To stop his gabbing the authorities brought there a big emblem of horn and dog, the famous mark of Gramophone Co. Using that he was told to stop talking but sing. In this way he recorded yaman, basant, bhairavi, bhoop, maalkauns, khamaaj, etc. Rahimat is said to have been a simple man of great charm. He had a great fondness for sweetmeats. He was addicted to pan chewing, but the most of the anecdotes relate him with the addiction of opium. His singing style was very captivating though he had very thin and melodic voice. Because of his magnetic recitals he was felicitated with the title of Bhuu Gandharv. His records prove his utmost sweet delivery of the songs. Rahimat Khan died in Kurundwad in 1922 at the age of 62 and is buried there in a small cemetery to the East of the town. Apart from a few photographs and the Gramophone records there is a very little information available to substantiate the life and work of this legendary musician.

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Record news-Suresh chandvankarRkdas 19:44, 24 September 2007 (UTC)rkdas

Suresh Chandavarkar Hafizullah Khan, Pillars of Hindustani music –chapter vishnupant chhatre B R Deodhar-Popular Prakashan, Bombay 1993