AMN
Google today dedicated its doodle to famous Shehnai vadak Ustad Bismillah Khan on his 102 anniversary.
Bismillah Khan (March 21, 1913 – August 21, 2006) was a legendary Indian musician of the wind instrument the Shehnai which he popularized and brought it to a pinnacle of glory and for which he got the honorific Ustad prefixed to his name.
The Shehnai, which was a folk instrument played primarily during traditional ceremonies was elevated to the status of playing solo on the concert stage.
During his life time he was one of the few artists who received all the four Padma awards, and topped with the India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 2001. He was a pious Shi’ite Muslim, but an Indian devotee of Saraswati, the Hindu Goddess of wisdom and arts. He often played at Hindu temples, including the famous Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi on the banks of the river Ganga.
Khan saheb’s music has found its way, penetrating barriers of religion, caste and class, to the hearts of millions of our people, uniting them in a shared ecstasy….He has never accepted that there is any contradiction between music and his religious faith, rather he sees perfect unity , a connection between the two…
