Amir Akbar Khan (1816–1845;Pashto: امير اکبر خان, born as Mohammad Akbar Khan (Pashto: محمد اکبر خان) and famously known as Wazir Akbar Khan, was an Afghan Prince, a general, a tribal leader and Emir. He was active in the First Anglo-Afghan War, which lasted from 1839 to 1842. He is prominent for his leadership of the national party in Kabul from 1841 to 1842, and his pursuit of the retreating British army from Kabul to Gandamak near Jalalabad in 1842. In 1837 in the battle of Jamrud he killed sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa in a planned tyrantical way by conspiring whilst trying to get back the city of Peshawar for the Afghans from the Sikh army, but Akbar Khan failed to do so.

Amir Akbar Khan was born in the year 1816 as Mohammad Akbar Khan, as the son of Amir Dost Mohammad Khan of Afghanistan and to his fifth wife Mirmon Khadija Popalzai. Amir Dost Mohammad Khan had totally 2 wives, 8 sons (including Amir Akbar Khan) and 2 daughters.

He led a revolt in Kabul against the British Indian mission of William McNaughten, Alexander Burnes and their garrison of 4,500 men. In November 1841, he besieged Major-General William Elphinstone's force in Kabul. Elphinstone accepted a safe-conduct for his force and about 12,000 associated workers to flee to India; they were ambushed and massacred. It was claimed in at least one set of British war memoirs that, during the retreat, Akbar Khan could be heard alternately commanding his men, in Persian language to desist from, and in Pashto language to continue, firing.

Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Akbar (Persian: جلال الدین محمد اکبر ‎ - Jalāl ud-Dīn Muḥammad Akbar), also known as Shahanshah Akbar-e-Azam or Akbar the Great (14 October 1542  – 27 October 1605), was the third Mughal Emperor. He was of Timurid descent; the son of Emperor Humayun, and the grandson of the Mughal Emperor Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur, the ruler who founded the Mughal dynasty in India. At the end of his reign in 1605 the Mughal empire covered most of northern and central India. He is most appreciated for having a liberal outlook on all faiths and beliefs and during his era, culture and art reached a zenith as compared to his predecessors.

Akbar was 13 years old when he ascended the Mughal throne in Delhi (February 1556), following the death of his father Humayun. During his reign, he eliminated military threats from the powerful Pashtun descendants of Sher Shah Suri, and at the Second Battle of Panipat he decisively defeated the newly self-declared Hindu king Hemu. It took him nearly two more decades to consolidate his power and bring all the parts of northern and central India into his direct realm. He influenced the whole of the Indian Subcontinent as he ruled a greater part of it as an emperor. As an emperor, Akbar solidified his rule by pursuing diplomacy with the powerful Hindu Rajput caste, and by marrying Rajput princesses.

Ali Akbar Khan (Bengali: আলী আকবর খাঁ) (14 April 1922 – 18 June 2009), often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad (master), was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Khan was instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer (often in conjunction with Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar), and as a teacher. He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967, which is now located in San Rafael, California and has a branch in Basel, Switzerland. Khan also composed several classical ragas and filmscores. He was a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Trained as a musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, Khan first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later settled in California. Khan was nominated for five Grammy Awards and was accorded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989. He has also won a MacArthur Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts's National Heritage Fellowship.

Ravi Shankar (Bengali: রবি শংকর; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury on 7 April 1920), often referred to with the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the most known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.

Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956.

In 1956, he began to tour Europe and America playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison of The Beatles. Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, and received three Grammy Awards. He continues to perform in the 2000s, often with his daughter Anoushka.

Swapan Chaudhuri is an Indian tabla player, who has accompanied several musicians of Indian classical music, including, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Jasraj.

He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama in 1997.

Swapan Chaudhuri's parents, through their own passion for music, initiated his formal musical training. Swapan Chaudhuri started tabla learning at the age of five. He bases his style on the intensive training he received from his Guru, Pandit Santosh Krishna Biswas of Calcutta, the eminent exponent of the Lucknow Gharana. He holds a master's degree in music and has been conferred honors for his distinguished contributions in the field of tabla by the government of India and various musical institutions. He also holds a degree in economics from Jadavpur University, Calcutta.

As a soloist and accompanist Swapan has traveled throughout Europe, North and South America, and Asia, accompanying maestros such as Pandit Habib Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the late Nikhil Banerjee, Ustad Amir Khan, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Dr. Balamurali Krishna, and other eminent artists. In addition, he has produced many recordings, including his own tabla solo and video tapes, and has appeared extensively on television and radio. Swapan's music reaches beyond the scope of classical music to include performances and recordings with musicians such as L. Shankar, John Handy, and the African drum master Malenga. He has participated in many international music festivals such as Bath, Perth, Sydney, Tokyo, San Francisco, Kuala Lampur, Stuttgart, and Berlin. He has composed for several percussion ensembles, which have received much appreciation from both western and Indian audiences.