Ustad Allauddin Khan, the founder of the Maihar gharana, is associated with which instrument?

Explanation

Ustad Allauddin Khan (about 1862-1972), often called "Baba", was one of the greatest musicians and teachers in the history of Hindustani classical music. He was a master of the sarod, but he also played many other instruments, including the violin, sitar, surbahar and shehnai. He is regarded as the founder of the Maihar gharana (also called the Maihar-Senia gharana).

Allauddin Khan was born in Shibpur, in present-day Bangladesh. As a boy, he ran away from home to learn music and lived a life of great hardship in his search for teachers. He learnt from many masters, including Ustad Wazir Khan of Rampur, a descendant of Tansen, who taught him the Senia tradition. He became the court musician of the Maharaja of Maihar, a small princely state in present-day Madhya Pradesh, where he lived for most of his life. There, he formed the Maihar Band, an orchestra that used Indian and Western instruments, some of which he invented, and he composed many new ragas. He was a strict and demanding teacher, and his students became some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century: his son Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (sarod), his daughter Annapurna Devi (surbahar), his son-in-law Pandit Ravi Shankar (sitar), Pandit Nikhil Banerjee (sitar), Pandit Pannalal Ghosh (flute) and Vasant Rai. He received the Padma Bhushan (1958) and the Padma Vibhushan (1971), and he died in Maihar in 1972, reportedly more than 100 years old.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Shehnai is linked with Ustad Bismillah Khan.
• ✗Tabla is linked with Ustad Alla Rakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain.
• ✗Santoor is linked with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma.