1862

www.aacm.org Ustad Baba Allauddin Khan Saheb was a Muslim and a Hindu - ahead of his time - like Akbar. When many people hear the name Allauddin Khan, they think of a grumpy old man (after all, he lived to 110) with a hot temper but a heart of gold -- anecdotes about him range from throwing a tabla tuning hammer at the Maharaja himself to taking care of disabled beggars. (Nikhil Banerjee said that the tough image was "deliberately projected in order not to allow any liberty to the disciple. He always had the tension that soft treatment on his part would only spoil them". Allauddin Khan was a very religious man, and though Muslim by name, was strongly devoted to the goddess Saraswati, in the form of Sarada Devi, to whom there stands an old and famous temple atop a hill in Maihar. This is why Allauddin, despite more lucrative offers from other courts, never left Maihar, refusing to move away even for hospital treatment -- he would rather die near Sarada Devi than live someplace else. A few years before the turn of the century, he married Madanmanjari Devi (1888--?). He had one son and sarod heir, Ali Akbar Khan, and three daughters, Sharija, Jehanara and Annapurna Devi. After Sharija got married, and her jealous mother-in-law burnt her tanpura, Allauddin decided not to train his other daughters, but Annapurna proved so talented he changed his mind. She later married and divorced Ravi Shankar. This man alone created Ali Akbar Khan (and his children), Annpurna Devi, Ravi <b>...</b>