Lucknow Gharana of Kathak

Here is brief history about Lucknow Gharana...

The name Avadh (Oudh) was derived from the popular version of the ancient town of Ayodhya, which was the capital of the mythological kingdom of Raja Dasharath in prehistoric times. Sravasti (ancient Savatthi), also of this region, and where Gautam Buddha spent many years, features in the Buddhist literature of the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era. In the fourth century A.D. it was part of the Gupta Empire, after which it seems to have become a wilderness, being deserted, by the seventh century A.D. It is believed that in the following century the Tharu tribe from the foot of the Himalayan mountains descended upon this area. By the ninth century A.D. the whole area had become part of the Kingdom of Kanauj. Two centuries later, in 1194 AD., Kutub-ud-Din finally defeated the ruler of Kanauj and broke up the last great Hindu Kingdom of this region.

 

The region saw many vicissitudes and changed hands many times. In 1555 A.D the Mughal King Humayun emerged as the final victor and the area thus became part of the Mughal Empire. His successor, Akbar, created the Suba (Province) of Avadh as one of the units of his Empire, the Governor of which was called a Subedar, and the official name of the town of Ayodhya also became Avadh.

 

Avadh was at that time divided into five havelis or districts: Avadh (Faizabad), Gorakhpur, Bahraich, Lucknow and Khairabad. These boundaries seem to have remained unchanged until the reign of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah. He appointed Sadat Khan as the Subedar of Avadh in 1722 A.D. This may be regarded as the date of the founding of the dynasty of the Nawabs of Avadh, which ruled until 1856 A.D. With the disintegration of the Mughal Empire Avadh achieved defacto independence.

 

The first three rulers of Avadh were Sadat Khan. Safdar Lang and Shuja-ud-Daula. The last mentioned was obliged to give away certain areas of his dominion to the East India Company and his successors continued to cede parts of their Province to the British in exchange of various treaties. In 1775 A.D. Asaf-ud-Daula came to power and was succeeded by Sadat Ali Khan who too lost some more area to the British. From then on the dynasty continued to rule under the protection of the British and in 1856 A.D. Avadh was annexed to the British Raj when the last Nawab Wajid Ali Shah surrendered his crown to the British and left for Calcutta.

 

The Lucknow gharana of Kathak dance developed during the reign of Asaf-ud-Daula (1775 A.D.- 1798 A.D.) and Wajid Ali Shah (1847 A.D -1856 A.D.). As seen earlier the Kathaks who danced had their centres in Ayodhya and Benaras. The Rasadhari tradition flourished around Mathura and Braj. The contemporary Kathak's line of teachers extends backward beyond the Muslim period in ancient times. James Prinsep's 1825 census of Benaras discloses that there were more than a hundred Kathak castes in the city at that time. F. Buchanan's survey of Bihar during the years 1807-1814 reports fifty-eight Kathak establishments in the principal towns of the area. At this time the profession was mature and its representatives were widely distributed in North India.

 

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