The Rampur Sahaswan Khayal Gharana

Gharana names normally are place names: the names of the places where the founders lived or came from. The Rampur-Sahaswan khayal gharana, as it is quite apparent, gets its name from two places.

First, Rampur (in Uttar Pradesh) which was a major centre of North-Indian classical music from the reign of its fifth nawab, Nawab Yusuf Ali (1840-1868). This line of nawabs was of Afghan origin.

The second, Sahaswan is a village in the Badayun district of the same state in which most of the gharana's famous musicians, including Ustad Rashid Khan, were born. It is near Rampur.