With which genre is Shankar Rao Pandit associated?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, Khayal singing. Pandit Shankar Rao Pandit (1863–1949) was a leading Hindustani classical vocalist and a pillar of the Gwalior gharana — traditionally regarded as the oldest Khayal gharana, from which most later gharanas branched. He trained under Balkrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar (who carried the Gwalior gharana's Khayal tradition into Maharashtra), and his own son, Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, went on to become one of the Gwalior gharana's most celebrated 20th-century Khayal vocalists.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The sitar is a plucked-string instrument central to Hindustani INSTRUMENTAL music (e.g. the Maihar/Imdadkhani traditions) — not Shankar Rao Pandit's genre, which was vocal.  (b) The mridangam/mrudang is a percussion instrument (mainly Carnatic, with the pakhawaj as its Hindustani counterpart) — again an instrumental tradition unrelated to Pandit's vocal Khayal practice.  (d) Kathak is a North Indian classical dance form (with its own Lucknow, Jaipur, and Banaras gharanas) — a different performing-arts stream from vocal Khayal music.

Concept: Khayal is the dominant genre of North Indian (Hindustani) classical vocal music, built around a fixed set of lyrics elaborated through slow (vilambit) and fast (drut) improvisation within a raga. The Gwalior gharana is considered the oldest of the Khayal gharanas and the common root from which later gharanas (Agra, Kirana, Patiala, Jaipur-Atrauli) branched.

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