Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan was a legendary vocalist of Hindustani music. Known as the oldest performing musician of the country, he died on February 18, 2016.
On his sixth death anniversary, here are some lesser known facts about the classical singer.
He was born in a family of musicians tracing back to Behram Khan, who was a singer of traditional Gwalior gharana gayaki.
Born to Chhote Yusuf Khan, he represented the 16th generation of Miyan Tansen's lineage from the time of Akbar.
Khan received his initial training from his father Chhote Yusuf and uncle Bade Yusuf Khan and also from the other elders from the family.
Equally adept at khayal, thumri, dhrupad and dhamar, he was a regular performer in Akashvani and Doordarshan and reputed national and regional conferences.
His traditional compositions have been recorded by reputed broadcasters and institutes like BBC, Iraq Radio and Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Akademi, Lucknow.
Khan created around 2,000 compositions and was also a prolific writer and poet under the pseudonym Rasan Piya.
In 2013, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, becoming the oldest person ever to be conferred a Padma award.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee was a resident guru at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in the city. Khan had given music lessons even yesterday to his students who addressed him as 'Baba' out of respect.
The eminent classical vocalist never stopped enthralling his fans even if it meant singing from a wheelchair on the stage at the age of 107.
