Ustad Dildar Khan, widely known as "Master Girdhari" was born in Gwalior in 1925. He learned sarangi and vocal music from his father Chand Khan and also from Hussain Khan, Yatin Khan and Chote Khan (one of the many). Dildar Khan came from a distinguished lineage in Gwalior including his paternal grandfather Jahan Khan and great-grandfather Moti Khan and maternal uncle Gulab Khan. In his day Dildar Khan had accompanied many great singers including Krishnarao Shankar Pandit and Omkarnath Thakur. His musical tours took him as far as China, Afghanistan and Singapur. Before retirement he had been employed at Doordarshan (state TV) in Lucknow. When I met him, he was retired and living in Jhansi, Madhya Pradesh, teaching his sons vocal music, sarangi and tabla.
My first visit to Dildar Khan's home was on 11 April, 1995. He played rag Madhuvanti, followed by some discussion and a short demonstration of Multani.
My next visits were over three days in July 1997. The first video is of his singing rag Nat Bhairav—teaching his son Wahid Khan on sarangi on 27 July, 1997. There is also a considerable amount of conversation.
The next video begins with Dildar Khan tuning, then his son Wahid Khan plays a bit of Todi—in preparation for Dildar Khan himself playing rag Todi on sarangi. He also sings tans and a beautiful khayal bandish in Todi. The clip ends with Dildar Khan discussing his training and family while Wahid Khan begins to play rag Shuddh Sarang.
Next he performed rag Puriya Kalyan, followed by a short Basant Bahar (double rag of Springtime) then a quick excursion in Bibhas the bandish "mora re", of which he told me the entire text. Finally Dildar Khan's eldest son, who has been playing tabla, sang an unusual bandish and assured me that it would confuse any tabla player (a glimpe into the martial attitudes which are oft-encountered in the world of Hindustani music).
On July 29, 1997, Dildar Khan treated me to a vocal performance of two rags. Although his elderly voice was shaky and sometimes tentative, he demobstrated prodigious knowledge of vocal music. First he sang rag Puriya Kalyan. I accompanied him on tabla for the vilambit ektal (very slow 12-matra part of the performance until his eldest son took over for the drut (fast) section.
And then rag Malkauns:
