The Gwalior Gharana is known as the "Gangotri" (meaning origin) of Khyal raga and is considered the most ancient school of hindustani classical music.
[1] The head musician in the imperial court was Bade Mohammad Khan, who was famous for his taan bazi style.
[citation needed] Both Bade Mohammad Khan and Naththan Pir Bakhsh belonged to the same tradition of Shahi Sadarang (also known as Nemat Khan, dhrupad singer and veena player in the court of Mohammad Shah (1702 CE – 1748 CE).
Among the brothers' students were Vasudeva Buwa Joshi (died 1890), who became a teacher; and Ramkrishna Deva, who became a musician in Dhar.
[4] It was Ramkrishna Deva's student, Balakrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar (1849 – 1926) who brought the Gwaliori gaeki (singing style) to Maharashtra state.
[5] Another prominent disciple of the duo was a Muslim dhrupad and dhamar singer from Amritsar, Miyan Banney Khan.
[9] Pyare Khan also remained a musician at the court of Maharajadhiraj Maharawal (Sir Jawahir Singh) of Jaisalmer (1914 – 1949).
He was also a teacher of Seth Vishandas of Hyderabad in Sindh near Karachi and Mahant Girdharidas of Bhuman Shah, Punjab.
[14] This gharana is known for adhering to what is described as the "ashtangi gayaki," a systematic aesthetic framework of eight elements to approach vocalization.
The eight elements of ashtanga gayaki include: Each body has distinct subvarieties, but meend and behlava are considered the most important.
The behlava is a medium tempo rendition of the notes which follows the pattern of the aroha (ascent) and the avaroha(descent) of the raga.
The dugun-ka-alap follows in which groups of two or four note combinations are sung in quicker succession while the basic tempo remains the same.