Enayat Khan

Ustad Enayat Khan (1894–1938), also known as Nath Singh, was one of India's most influential sitar and surbahar players in the first decades of the 20th century. Born into the Imdadkhani (Etawah) gharana, he was the son and disciple of the legendary sitar maestro Imdad Khan, who taught him in the family's distinctive gayaki ang style. Enayat Khan standardised the physical dimensions of the modern sitar and added the upper resonator gourd that remains popular with today's players. Settling in Calcutta at a time when national cultural pride was surging alongside the independence movement, he brought sitar music out from narrow connoisseur circles to broader mass audiences; Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was among his personal friends and musical collaborators. He married Bashiran Begum, daughter of the khyal singer Bande Hussain. Though he lived only to age 43, he fathered four children, including the celebrated sitar virtuosos Vilayat Khan (1928–2004) and Imrat Khan, both of whom were trained in the Imdadkhani gharana style and carried his legacy forward into the postwar era.