The king of sarangi strings - Sultan Khan

Sultan Khan, a noted sarangi nawaz is to perform at Saptak’s 8th session on Thursday accompanied by his son Sabir Khan and nephew Dilshad Khan on sarangi and by Prithviraj Mishra on tabla.

He is a real Sultan of sarangi who unlike many pursues art and music for inner peace and not public performance or worldly applause.

Khan who has performed in more than 65 concerts worldwide, and has played pieces for more than 1000 popular film songs - that includes the evergreen songs of the blockbuster Umaravjaan — is a globally acclaimed artist of his cadre for playing sarangi.

He is one of the few dazzling souls who have dared to experiment with the art form they are established in, and at the age of 64 he has begun singing the notes and tunes that he once used to play from his instrument alone.

And though he has sung hardly ten pieces till date, each of these has become popular to the extent that the vocal icon of India Lata Mangeshkar had to come forward to compliment Khan as “Dhurandhar” (expert) not only of sarangi but also of singing.     

Making of the Sultan
Born in April, 1936 in Jodhpur to a sarangi artist and a musician Ustad Gulab Khan, Sultan Khan inherited art of playing sarangi since his birth. Ask him from when did he start practising and picking up music and phat he replies, “Ma Ke Pet Se” (from my mother’s womb). His father became his guru and sculpted an artist out of him. Naming a few who sculpted a sultan out of this Khan, he recalls Vinayak Patvardhan, a noted singer of Rajkot, Lata Mangeshkar and family and Pt. Ravi Shankarji. 

Patvardhan saw in him the potentials of becoming an artist and trained him rigorously to bring those elements out. Mangeshkar family supported him in Mumbai and gave him a platform to unleash his talents while Pt Ravishankar supported him on a global scale.

Today, he is at the summit of his pursuits without forgetting these names which have worked for making him the sultan that he is.

Less a celeb, more humble, humane
Brought up in Saurashtra with saints, Khan has acquired rare virtues that many lose while undertaking a journey towards success.

‘Gujarat ke santo se tyagna sikha hai’ (learnt the art of sacrificing from saints), he says, and indeed it is visible how he has sacrificed on his lifestyle to become humble and remain humane.

He is a real celebrity by practice who has overgrown the limitations that a celebrity status endows one with.

He mixes with his fans and actively interacts with commoners. He has internalised the ideology that love of commoners and listeners has in fact made him a celebrity and not his reputation as an artist.

Becoming a good human being is more precious to him than becoming a successful artist.